Musonius Rufus, Lectures 4.5

"Come now," I suppose someone will say, "do you expect that men should learn spinning the same as women, and that women should take part in gymnastic exercises the same as men? "

No, that I should not demand. But I do say that, since in the human race man's constitution is stronger and woman's weaker, tasks should be assigned which are suited to the nature of each; that is the heavier tasks should be given to the stronger and lighter ones to the weaker. Thus spinning and indoor work would be more fitting for women than for men, while gymnastics and outdoor work would be more suitable for men.

Occasionally, however, some men might more fittingly handle certain of the lighter tasks and what is generally considered women's work, and again, women might do heavier tasks which seem more appropriate for men whenever conditions of strength, need, or circumstance warranted.

I have listened to much debate about the corresponding strengths and weaknesses of men and women, and what I often find is that such differences are considered as if they were all that matters, as if they were even all that exists.

“Men are physically tougher, and they can better focus on working through a problem!”

“Yes, but women can put up with more hardship, and they have better instincts!”

Now even if this is true, if each has access to a distinct set of tools, it changes nothing about the far more fundamental humanity behind all of it. There is reason, and there is will. There is the power to know what is true, and the power to choose what is good. By all means, insist that I cannot understand if I am a dog or a potted plant, but do not tell me I cannot understand if I am tall or short, or have blonde or black hair, or am a man or a woman.

I appreciate how Musonius thinks this question through, because he sees both the forest and the trees, the whole and the parts, the universal and the particular. If men and women have distinct physical or mental attributes, then surely they will be better suited for the practice of certain skills, even as they share in a common nature.

But such differences can just as well exist from any one individual to another, and there will always be exceptions. I have known a good number of women who can wipe the floor with most men, and a good number of men who can be sensible and grounded far better than most women. I have found that it saves me much trouble if I don’t blindly make such assumptions to begin with. Let me see a person first, and then learn what particular gifts that person may possess.

I was recently fascinated when a flight surgeon explained how women, on the whole, might possibly make better combat pilots. I have no way of knowing whether there is any truth to it, but the very idea was interesting in itself.

He referred to all sorts of recent studies, suggesting that the female body can better handle the physical stresses of flying, and that the way a woman’s brain is wired can make it easier for her to track multiple targets in her head.

When I mentioned this to my wife, who had been raised in a military family, she saw it right away. “We can handle giving birth, and you suffer over a hangnail. We do twenty things at once, while you just focus on one.”

I will bow to her wisdom in the matter!

When my wife and I first met, we immediately had a profound sense that we were made to work together, though we would need to learn what part each of us had to play in that shared work. We also discovered the writings of Edith Stein together, and her words have stuck with us over the years:

I am convinced that the species humanity embraces the double species man and woman; that the essence of the complete human being is characterized by this duality; and that the entire structure of the essence demonstrates the specific character. There is a difference, not only in body structure and in particular physiological functions, but also in the entire corporeal life. . . .

The relationship of soul and body is different in man and woman; the relationship of soul to body differs in their psychic life as well as that of the spiritual faculties to each other. The feminine species expresses a unity and wholeness of the total psychosomatic personality and a harmonious development of faculties. The masculine species strives to enhance individual abilities in order that they may attain their highest achievements.

Not stronger or weaker, not better or worse, not more or less, just two different ways of coming at one and the same thing. We are made for the same end, even as we might go about it in rather different ways. That interplay of the parts is necessary for the fullness of the whole. 

Written in 6/1999

IMAGE: USAF pilots, Rob and Beth Makros