This article was originally published on yourtango.com on August 12, 2021.  T-Ann is a contributor to this article.

It’s about more than just toilet seat preferences

Humankind has spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the differences between the genders.

After all these centuries, men still find women mysterious and women still marvel at how closed off emotionally men can be. Haven’t we learned anything over the years? Is there no genetic or emotional blueprint we can use to explain why men and women act SO differently in a relationship?

Although no easy roadmap to the genders exists, there is some information we can glean when we look at the unique biological, sociological, and evolutionary qualities of men and women.

In our latest Expert video, Senior VP of YourTango Experts Melanie Gorman asked a group of our relationship Experts — T-Ann Pierce, Clara Wisner, Kathryn Foster, and Helen Fisher — for their opinions on the major things we need to consider when we look at the physical and emotional divide between the genders.

You can see their full discussion in the above video, but here are FIVE things they agreed that we must all remember about men and women.

1. Men and women evolved differently.

This is just a biological fact. For eons, men’s brains were fashioned to fit their jobs — hunting and protecting their pack from enemies. To accomplish those tasks, they had to learn to detach, to suspend their empathy. Meanwhile, women’s brains developed much more relational roles. Women gave birth, they worked in communal environments.

The way men and women’s brains evolved over the centuries plays a role in how they relate today. That’s why women often want more empathic dialogue from their men, and men feel criticized because they don’t have the same emotional capacity. It’s just how they’re wired.

Keep Reading…