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Sex – Differences

The human sexes are visibly different in some physical characteristics. Work-role ascription in simple societies was highly affected by physical sex differences. Men considerably exceed women in average upper body strength.

Although women do a lot of moderately heavy physical labor in many societies, tasks calling for great strength or speed such as hunting, fighting, tree clearing or heavy lifting are nearly always done by men. The almost continuous childbearing and nursing in most societies has generally limited women's work to that which could be combined with baby care work which was reptetive, interruptible and calling for no great physical strength. This had the effect of assigning most of the adventurous and exciting work to men and most of the drudgery to women. Yet there are several instances showing that functional practicality was not the only determinant of the gender work roles. In modern societies physical strength and reproductive function are less important factors in work-role ascription. Even the physical differences are shrinking.

In many fields of athletic competition, women are catching up with men. The gap between men's and women's records in all events which both enter has narrowed by an average of 1/3.According to Maccoby and Jacklin about the sex differences among Americans- the research shows boy's greater aggressiveness, boys' greater mathematical and visual –spatial differences and girls' greater verbal ability. There are no significant sex differences in sociability, self-esteem, higher cognitive learnings, analytic ability, achievement motivation and responsiveness to visual stimuli. It is not certain that these ability differences are biological. They may be but not proved. All sex differences apart from reproductive system are average differences. These are not very great with a great deal of overlapping. It clearly shows that aside from physical strength and reproduction most sex differences are social products, not biological building blocks.Sex roles can be whatever a society makes them.

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