When we share our understanding of the cultural impact in influencing our biology, we don’t want to minimize the hard wiring differences between the sexes regarding the more traditional strengths and specialized roles of men and women. The differential effects of testosterone and other hormones for men and women have been firmly established and recognized in multiple disciplines. Our point is simply the women’s and men’s liberation movements in Western culture have led to more congruency with each other that are freeing both genders to express unique talents, styles and abilities independent of our more traditionally prescribed gender roles. As an example of men incorporating empathy into their lives, we still have our copy of the New York Times Sports Section from April 20, 1997, that marked the first time we saw the word, empathy, headline a male sports story. It’s about baseball and says “Mets Empathize with 0-13 Cubs, but Beat Them Anyway.”
Another observation we have about gender differences with empathy is that men tend to give more advice, ask more questions and try to fix situations when responding to someone who is upset. We also notice that women usually listen more closely and tend to respond by mirroring people’s feelings before they try to fix their problems.