Biology really matters - Essay Example

Biology really matters Biologically speaking, men and women differ in their physical sense, mental sense and even in the hormonal sense. Apart from the distinct physical organs, men and women have clear variations in their hormonal types and levels, which play a key role in their different behavioral patterns. That is, in normal young adults of both sexes, there are differences in hormone levels, which are associated with variations in cognitive pattern, which clearly implies that hormones continue to play a key role in maintaining biological sex differences later in life.

(Kimura, 2001). For example, young adults, who have low normal levels of human sex hormone, Testosterone tends to perform quite successfully on spatial tests, when compared to the ones with high normal levels. (Kimura, 2001). These fluctuations in the hormone levels could occur throughout the year, with higher levels happening in the autumn and lower levels in the spring, thus improving the subjects’ performance on spatial tests in the spring. On the other hand, women’s estrogen hormonal levels tends make quite effective in person-oriented occupations and functions.

Unlike, the impact of seasons on the hormonal changes in men, women’s hormonal levels fluctuate around across the menstrual cycle, thus impacting their performance during those periods. (Kimura, 2001). Because of these biological differences in the hormonal levels, it is clear that women tend to gravitate towards fields like education, nursing and social work more often than men. (Kimura, 2001). On the other hand, although, men and women are equally represented in the other health-related professions, in most cases men tend to perform better in the science fields.

These differences in the hormonal levels also impacts men and women’s susceptibility to certain diseases, and which indirectly impacts their behavioral patterns. That is, according to United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, estrogens offer women of reproductive age some protection against cardiovascular diseases. That is, before the age of 65, heart disease is one of the leading causes of mortality among the men, but on the other hand, cancer causes death mainly in women. After menopause and due to the hormonal changes in the women’s physical body, a kind of reversal takes place, with women facing a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases than men and in turn, men face higher risk of cancer than women.

(United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). With the most important risk factors for cancers being tobacco smoking and diet, and with the women under 65 having less risk of cancer, it could indirectly impact their (or women) lifestyle or behavioral patterns. That is, with women being less ‘warned’ than men regarding tobacco consumption, the biological differences and the resultant susceptibility to diseases, their behaviors are impacted. Apart from these key biological differences, the other biological or physical biological difference, which impacts the behaviors of both men and women, is the size of the brain.

That is, mens brains are measured to have larger size, when compared to the women brain’s size. Although, the size and the number of neurons appear favorably in men, the usage of the brain is more in the case of the women. That is, women use more of their brain and its neurons for many of their tasks, as the womens brains run tend to employ more glucose; and it is clear that for a given task, women use more of their brains. (Finkbeiner, 1997) Although men’s brain is larger in size, women’s brain tends to work in a more optimal manner, thus negating the size difference.

So, it is clear that the physical biological difference between men and women, particularly in the case of the brain, clearly impacts their behavioral patterns. ReferencesFinkbeiner, A. (1997). How to Tell Men From Women. Retrieved August 22, 2010 fromhttp://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/24/reviews/970824.24finkbet.htmlKimura, D. (2001). Biological constraints on parity between the sexes. Retrieved August 22, 2010 fromhttp://www.sfu.ca/~dkimura/articles/constraints.htmUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

HEALTH - Biological differences between women and men. Retrieved August 22, 2010 from http://www.unece.org/stats/gender/genpols/keyinds/health/biodiffs.htm