Research on Gender Comparisons Gender has long been a dichotomous debate. One gender is more of this, whereas the other gender is more of that. Men stereotypically maintain a reputation as leaders and aggressors, whereas women retain the role of empathetic and nurturing. The author of our book, Donelson, has examined and provided us with a plethora of research on the gender differences in regards to leadership, aggression, empathy, nurturance, agency, and communal orientations in relation to their connected selves. Though this research remains true in many aspects, not all women fit the "normal" orientation for their gender. According to our book, aggression is generally thought of as a male behavior, although the difference between the two genders is moderate. Men and women react differently to aggression. Men tend to react more physically with aggression, whereas women tend to exercise their aggression in a more covert, relational manner. The book points out that "the best predictor of gender difference in aggression is belief about the consequences of aggression (p. 301)." Basically women think more about outcomes before they act than men do. Similar to aggression, anger traditionally has been more of an agentic emotion. Men display their anger using physical connotations, while women display their anger in a more introverted, calmer fashion. Generally, women are thought of as empathetic. According to the research that Donelson provided us in the book, women are better at detecting nonverbal cues than men. However, men are better at detecting anger than women are. As much as empathy is considered a communal trait, so is nurture. According to our book, three-year-old children held the same degree of nurturing, regardless of gender. However, children start showing signs of differing nurturing abilities by age 5. The reason for the difference between the sexes seems to remain unclear, however cultural expectations ...
