And the Land of the... Women?

According to Robert Nixon, writer for the magazine Psychology Today, a study confirmed the long suspected biological differences in emotional intelligence between men and women. However he delved even further than the stereotypical, age-long, distinctions between genders and researched the effects of resources, economic prosperity, and civilian rights promised to women. Nixon concludes that gender differences are magnified by the amount of resources available to a population. "But it's not the gender equality that drives a wedge between men's and women's traits in enlightened countries; it's the resources. These nations score high marks on the human development scale-life expectancy, school enrollment, economic prosperity. The researchers suggest that the gender differences are innate but that their expression is suppressed in struggling societies." This research may in fact prove true. According to Sandra Tsing Loh, the author of an article titled, 'Should Women Rule?' asserts that although women have the innate capabilities of competing with men, they thrive not by competing with one another, but rather grouping together for a common cause. However her opinions are laregely based on a study of American politics and research where Israeli schoolchildren were the main examples. Both of these nations, although faced with their individual civil and foreign conflicts, are widely known to be prosperous nations with the resources to fuel the differences that Nixon discussed. With influence from media and socio-cultural norms, these gender differerences may be easily facilitated. The biological differences between men and women have long been used as excuses for inequality in genders. Unless men and women in less prosperous nations bleed different colors, the differences lie not in biology or physiology, but rather the environment's influence on the cultural and social norms.