He thinks, she thinks

They are like that so their mothers say. I should not place the onus on the mothers since I have never raised a son and have absolutely no idea how to bring up a son. A friend feels that it is time for her twenty-one year old son to start dating. In this friend’s opinion, girls are different, they cannot date as much as boys. Is this why the world will never change so long as all these mothers hold the same views as the women in my parents’ generation? As a rule, all mothers cannot help falling in love with their babies but somehow sons and daughters are treated differently as a result, boys grow up expecting their wives to replace their mothers and take care of their ironing, food and children. There are some mothers who would go an extra mile to tell their sons to be nice to the fairer sex. A friend once told me that his mother used to tell him never to make a girl cry. Sweet. In our French class today, we had to give our opinions whether we agree or disagree with the statement: Les femmes sont plus sensibles que les homes. The youngest student in our class, a fourteen year old, immediately raised his hand and said, “ Je ne suis pas d’accord ….” . He expressed his view that he could not agree with the statement. Males appear to be less sensitive than females because they keep their feelings to themselves. On reflection, I should have asked him why it is so. Guess my French is too limited to make me think fast enough and he impresses me as a boy who appears to be beyond his age.

It is widely believed that women are more intuitive and more capable of empathy; perhaps it has to do with upbringing and the expectations that men must succeed hence they are somehow more aggressive, combative, predatory and goal oriented generally. While gender roles in different religions can vary, I believe that gender roles are largely attributed to stereotyping and social conditioning. Thanks to the women’s rights movements around the world, women are now able to negotiate their roles at home and outside home. However, as women are now joining the workforce whether by choice or out of necessity , the domestic role of some working women has not diminished and thus they have to constantly juggle their time between their work and their household duties . These women may have seemingly earned their financial independence, yet they do not have the freedom to pursue extra-curricular activities that are not related to their children or their families. It is important that men and women must respect that we all possess different attributes and ultimately there should not be what exactly the male thing is and likewise what the female thing is but what every individual wants to do with his or her life.