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Cultural Gender Differences

Mendel discovered that the genetic structure of males and females differ. Males have two chromosomes, an X and a Y chromosome and females two X chromosomes, which they inherit from their natural parents. This difference was believed to account to for their different reproductive organs and hormones (in males, testosterone and in females, mainly estrogen). Pool says that modern neurobiologists believe that "it is the hormone environment of the womb, not the chromosomes, that directly determine the sex of the fetus." Modern science on this subject really began with Charles Darwin whose theories of human evolution "described what he considered to be a basic dichotomy in the sexual nature of males and females of all species" and speculated that "women and men . . . adopt highly different strategies in order to . . . reproduce his or her genes." Most contemporary feminists discount the findings of Darwin and other male sociobiologists who, Hubbard says, described women's biology "in ways that make it appear 'natural' for us [women] to fulfill roles that are important for their [men's] well-being-personally and as a group." Tavris says that "sociobiologists . . . can no longer justify traditional sex roles, particularly male dominance and female nurturance and chastity, by appealing to the universality of such behavior in other species." On the other hand, Pool points out that "female dominance in human sex difference research" in recent years has resulted in "much of the research . . . [being] devoted to showing how societal influences are to blame for many of the dissimilarities between men and women." Even the Hoyenga book, a very comprehensive and systematic review of the subject, contains the frank admission that the book is feminist in the sense that "it contains a core set of assumptions regarding the [desirability of] the elimination of women's secondary status in society."

As the feminist assault on the findings of tradit...

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Cultural Gender Differences. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:16, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1691357.html