War has been and will always be a very concerning issue.  However, the battle of the sexes seems to linger on.  There seems to be a need to determine who is superior.  Regardless of an answer, this battle has shaped how people behave and how cultures progress.

In the United States, it is fascinating to see how the roles of men and women have been defined and redefined.  Women have more equal opportunities for education and careers.  The cries about injustices against women have been heard and many accommodated for, but the line between human rights and natural competition becomes fuzzy.

With the women empowerment movement, teen pregnancy rates have lowered and employment rates have been on the rise.  But have some women gone too far?  Many women are so career driven that they reject any opportunity to develop necessary social skills, more specifically dating skills.  Women don’t want to risk their dream career because of the responsibilities of an early marriage.  Not only are women under prepared for marriage later in life, but this has also denied many men the opportunity to develop these social skills.  If people don’t experience dating in their early years, effectively finding a life long partner will be much more difficult.

Just physically, men and women are not the same, which makes some tasks easier than others. This in turn affects how some gender roles are defined.  Why does that mean that we have to compare who is better or worse?  The definition between gender roles should only allow for better cooperation.  In the workplace, in the household and in the community, men and women should be able to use these different skills to tag team tasks.  There are very few instances when one gender is solely better at a single task, so acknowledging and encouraging the strengths displayed by men and women will help improve the overall effectiveness of the community.

How can cooperation between men and women improve society’s view on the progression of marriage?

Have women pushed themselves to a position of superiority?

Do women have better adaptive skills?

When do complaints by women about sexism become hypocritical?

Where does the equilibrium between the roles of men and women lay?

Is this necessary to the evolution of cultures?

Should the competition be removed?

By:  Carali Van Otteren

(Photo by Kheel Center, Cornell University under a Creative Commons License)