Are Women More Compassionate Than Men?

WhenI think about my family ,close and extended....the most compassionate one is a man , one of my maternal uncles..
The most dispassionate one ,bordering on cruel is also a man .

So I guess , it is specific to people irrespective of gender. The gender based stereotypying in general is very artificial .

 

Dear Viswamitra,
I think both men and women are equally compassionate. But the way of dealing or sharing is at a different level. Men and women in difficult situations need both emotional touch and practical way of solving a problem. Both important. A healing touch , soothing words go a long way in helping a person to recover and of course women can do better. Men donate, create infrastructure to solve problems is laudable. Both are equally important. In families also the same happens. Kids from hostel call home. Say hi to dad and ask him to give phone to mom. Mom asks them if they have eaten properly, slept good and on and on and talk for long. When Dad asks mom what they have talked so long....she smiles and says nothing. Fathers do not express much thought they feel the same way.
Syamala

 

Yes, this is what I was trying to convey to Viswa in my earlier post.

 

Both have compassion but the way they express can differ. However it does look that females tend to be more compassionate in the circumstances mentioned due to social factors and maybe as you told due to hormones as well.

It could be due to the way they are socially conditioned as you have told. The girls from their early childhood have been exposed to nurturing care and the expectations are reinforced as they grow to prepare them for their future roles in family life. Similarly boys are raised up to be bold and conditioned to put up a strong face even in adversaries. Maybe it had to do with the traditional role of men working for the family and women helping with the kids care. All these roles still continue to happen though there are varying degrees of role interchange ( helping each other ).

Regarding volunteering mostly females tend to be in more charitable works but some volunteering which involves manual work does have males like fire department. So as you said the “fight and flight” maybe the reason why certain departments have more men as volunteers and where more emotional compassion is required the females are present more.

Women tend to use volunteering as a means of meeting like minded people and have more interest in those areas. Another aspect is the time constraint for the main caregiver in a family. In a traditional role the males are expected to work full time and provide financially more to the household, though it can be the other way around. But from what I had come across it’s almost taken for granted that males work full time. Females do take time off from work due to the familial reasons and they tend to be working part time lots of time. Could that reason be another reason? Some youngsters use volunteering as means to enhance their way to enter into their profession of choice or to improve their career goals.

I just gave some reasons which came across to me.