Untitled presentation – Google Slides

The topic of empathy and compassion being a key difference in the male and female sexes has long since fascinated me and many others all across the world. The childish phrase boys are stronger, girls are smarter seems to me a perfect reflection of the way society sees these gender roles. Boys and me are expected to be strong and not show emotions in difficult times and thus not appear to portray empathy in times of distress and girls are conditioned from an early age to be open and emotionally intelligent, meaning they are to be receptive to the feelings and pain of others. As emotionally intelligence is proven to be amongst the highest indicators of success in many fields across life, the fact that society expects women to be more empathetic and receptive to other people’s feelings explains that notion we all internalize as children that girls are smarter and since boys don’t show weakness and emotion, they must be inherently stronger. This line of thinking produces a multitude of problems in society, such as toxic masculinity, gender stereotypes and wage gaps along with much, much more. For that reason I sought out to question and understand why, exactly society general deems women to be more empathetic and compassionate than men.