A lesson on the opposite sex

In celebration of Women's History Month, Weber State University professors Azenett Garza and James Hutchins presented "What's Sex Got to Do with It," a discussion on the biological and cultural differences in men and women. "As much as we'd like to say that there is a nice bright line between what it means to be a man or what it means to be a woman, we find that that line doesn't exist," said Hutchins, WSU health sciences professor. Hutchins spoke about the biological and mechanistic aspects of how it is that we become one gender or another, particularly how our brains are wired. "We can all agree on certain aspects of what it means to be a man or a woman," Hutchins said. "We call them primary sexual characteristics. But you'll find the more you examine each one of those definitions, each one of them starts to break down." He explained that both sets of sex organs develop out of the same embryonic structure. Both sexes begin as female; it's the high levels of the male hormone testosterone that allow the development of male sex characteristics. Garza focused on gender roles in society and how the stereotypes of society hold true in several research studies. In leadership roles, such as in politics, women tend to be viewed more negatively than men. This is especially true in more male-dominated professions. When the two genders are brought together, more often it's a man who emerges as a leader. However, when the groups are segregated by sex, those men or women with more dominant personalities tend to emerge as leaders. Even when a more dominating woman is paired with a less dominating man, the man steps up as a leader more often than the woman. She explained that both men and women hold this stereotype; that men are leaders, so the man will assume the role and the woman will allow him to do so. Women are more concerned with interpersonal relationships when they assume a leadership role. They want to make sure that everyone participates, that everyone has a say. Men delegate and tell people what is going to take place. "There is definitely biological influences to a lot of our behavior and there's a lot of environmental-social influences on our behavior," Garza said. "Environment can influence biology and biology can influence environment, and together influence behaviors, so we really have to look at the entire concept to really understand where these gender differences occur." She also explained that although gender roles are changing and more equality is being seen, society just isn't willing to be completely equal yet. "The topic is what got me here but the lecture was very informative," said WSU student Ashley Moyes. "I guess men really are from Mars, and women from Venus."

You can leave a message for reporter Shayla Craig by calling 626-7655.