Male Competitiveness: Nurture Not Nature
Though the findings in a recent Slate piece are nothing new on the face of it, the body of research on gender and competitiveness should be looked at with new eyes. As the writer, Ray Fislar, put it: Like many gender differences, the “competitiveness gap” is taken as simply human nature. Surprise, surprise. It turns out, there are environments (in this case – tribes) where women have become the more competitive gender. So, like a few other supposed “male traits,” competitiveness is more nurtured than natural.
Why did Fislar’s piece catch my eye today? Because of the truth in his closing paragraph:
If competitive instincts aren’t hardwired into the male mind, there may be hope for us to find a balance between the Khasi and Maasai ways of socializing the next generation (though social norms are very slow to change). At a minimum, we can work harder to equip young women with the knowledge and skills to compete in what remains a man’s world. But perhaps the problem isn’t one of female passivity—many have claimed that if women ran the world, there wouldn’t be any wars, and anyone who has read testosterone-driven Wall Street accounts like Liar’s Poker, or more recently House of Cards, might question whether all-out competition is the best way of managing our economy. If competition is nurture rather than nature, perhaps we’d all be better off if we lost a little of our warrior instincts.
Often, when gender differences are discussed, the presumption is that the answer to all our problems would be if women would just learn to be more like men. Yet, we have entered an era where more and more, from leadership skills to investment savvy, the equation goes the other way.
Yet – I will not say that men need to, or should strive to, be more like women in this era. Rather, the point is that much of what we just blindly accept these days about sexism, as well as the other “-isms,” is plain, old stereotype or assumption-based.
Let’s get with some critical thinking people! Specifically with regard to these supposed gender differences, if competitiveness is what will make the world a better place, we can all nurture that in ourselves or the teams we manage. If, however, and as I suspect is the case, the opposite of competitiveness may be key to forwarding a productive society today (especially if the big picture is toward more sustainable practices), aren’t we obligated to nurture those qualities in those who currently lack them?
The lazy way out is to assign all our gender relations issues to nature’s way rather than nurture’s way. Yet, that really isn’t “just the way it is,” in so many cases. How great is it to know that we actually have the opportunity to expand our human horizons, and learn new traits, no matter our gender!
There are not nearly as many natural obstacles to developing into more productive people than we’d all let ourselves believe. And, the “nurtural” challenges are ours alone to address.
