S/PS/46. Are there any realities in the differences between men and women or are the only differences how we see men and women?

Most people hold commonsense beliefs on what it is to be, act and feel as a male/female. However, as Lloyd and Archer (2002) advocate many of our beliefs derive from a time before public consciousness was challenged by feminist thinking. The distinction between men as effective, though not necessarily nice, and women as nice, but ineffective lies at the heart of gender stereotypes. This essay will explore the reality in relation to the differences between men and women, and socially constructed ideas of gender. It will propose that there are, on average, some differences between men and women, but our perspective tends to distort, affect and exaggerate these differences.