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Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by fastball on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:01PM (#27054936)
My pet theory is that testosterone impacts brain development in a way that causes people with more of it on average (men) to be more singularly driven, or "one track mind". The key is that "driven" does not mean "usefully driven" – and that is why you seem the extreme outliers on both ends. Making men more likely to be completely non-functioning alcoholics or more likely to successfully commit suicide, but also more likely to excel at chess.

In more egalitarian societies, we consistently see women make "better" choices when it comes to work/life balance etc, where as men are much more likely to unhealthily pursue career / etc doggedly even if it means sacrificing everything else.

It probably only tips the scales a tiny, tiny bit, but when you're talking about 7B people and societies that want to extract maximum efficiency from participants, it shows.

Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by KittenInABox on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:24PM (#27055237)
Seriously asking: How does this track where lots of women-specific jobs imo require a ton of drive? For example I can't imagine needing to get all the credentials and maintain credentials of being a nurse or a teacher for the pay they do. That's why I'm a dev.

Also, romance writing and fiction writing as a whole (self-publish or not) is dominated by women and the hustle they need to do requires a ton of determination and business sense.

Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by fastball on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:36PM (#27055416)
Yes, the idea of drive is a bit vague here.

Would you say women are pursuing nursing because they want to be the best nurse in the world? That is the kind of behavior I'm saying you see more in men (as an average). I was under the impression that nursing is attractive because you get to work with people, it pays pretty well, you can do it with an associates degree, and you can have a good work/life balance. But yes, of course doing it well requires drive.

Again, the idea here is not "men have drive and women don't", it is "men by a razor thin margin are more inclined to doggedly pursue something to the exclusion of all else, which shows up when you're looking at entire populations and you've geared your society in a way where you elevate people that are the best at one very particular thing". A nurse having more drive than you isn't really the point. It is like when you say "men are stronger than women", it does not mean that any man will be able to best any woman in a contest of physical strength. Of course not.

Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by KittenInABox on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:44PM (#27055541)
If men by a razor thin margin are more inclined to doggedly pursue something to the exclusion of all else I don't understand why there aren't more men publishing romance, which absolutely requires that level of dogged pursuit.

Nursing requires continued certificate renewal and continued education. It's also competitive to get into any nursing program, so much so that you indeed need a lot of dogged pursuit to get in.

Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by fastball on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:47PM (#27055589)
That is where it becomes a question of preference, not doggedness.
Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by jvanderbot on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:31PM (#27055332)
This is not just your pet theory, it's a very real theory. See "Is there anything good about Men" by Baumeister.

Also, as mentioned in a sibling comment, it used to be that you could find a single authoritative hosting of this lecture/essay, but now it's been ... adopted by the internet. I'd recommend googling and checking sources.

Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by fastball on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:45PM (#27055555)
My intended meaning with "pet" was not that I invented the theory, but rather that I do not have strong evidence for it. I have observed the data and this I think is a reasonable theory that fits the data. However I have not tried to strenuously falsify my own hypothesis, so I wanted to indicate that.
Re:Taking sex differences in personality seriously (2019) by serverholic on Wednesday May 05, 2021 @04:20PM (#27055163)
Many of those men are unhealthily pursuing careers to make their family's lives better. Same with single mothers working multiple jobs.

However, statistically men are more likely to be the breadwinners while women are more likely to have the luxury of "better" choices.