Difference in Personalities & Interests between Men & Women

What are the main differences between men and women? This article will look into the personality differences, and the differences in interests between the genders. How do they relate to the gender pay gap?

Differences in Interests

There have been several studies in which infants were given the option to play with two types of toys. These two types of toys were thing/object toys, for example cars, planes or tools. The other type was, people or doll toys.

The results found that boys mostly gravitated to the thing toys, and girls mostly gravitated to the people toys. Some will argue that the boys and girls may have been influenced at some point to prefer the stereotypical boy toys or girl toys.

However, the same experiments were also conducted on various species of monkeys. The results were the same, the males favoured the thing toys, and the females favoured the people toys. So these finding suggest it cannot be a human social construction. It would suggest that the differences in interests between the genders is largely biological.

So a strong interest in things would equal a passionate object oriented engineer, and a strong interest in people would equal a passionate and compassionate nurse. Engineers are generally paid more, so this contributes in part to the gender pay gap.

Personality Trait Differences

Agreeableness

Personality psychology reveals that men and women vary on certain traits. The first trait where men and women differ on the big five personality trait model is, trait Agreeableness. Studies found that on average women were higher on this trait, this trait includes the sub traits of, sympathetic, cooperative, morality, and modesty.

Those who are high in the agreeableness trait tend to be more helpful, considerate, less aggressive and less assertive. Less assertive people are less likely to ask their boss for a pay rise, this is another factor that accounts for the gender pay gap.

Neuroticism

The studies and research also revealed that women on average were higher in trait neuroticism. Those who are high in this trait are more likely to suffer with mood swings, get stressed easier, feel anxious more often, and more likely to suffer with depression, and generally suffer from more negative emotions.

MBTI Thinkers & Feelers

Another personality model called the myers briggs personality type indicator stats differences in one of the four sets of preferences. That preference is, Thinkers and Feelers, with 60 percent of women being reported to lead with the feeling preference or function.

Feelers are led by the heart rather than the head, more likely to be compassionate than logical. Their feelings, and the feelings of others are the priority. They often put feelings before facts, and they often believe compassion is the answer to solving most problems.

References

Psychology Today – Why Do Boys and Girls Prefer Different Toys?

Scientific America – Sex differences in personality.