Prompt: “Men and women, because of their inherent physical differences, are not equally suited for many tasks.”
While the physical differences inherent in men and women do not play a role in accomplishing most tasks, it is fair to say that many tasks are suited to particular sexes owing to the physical requirements of the task.
Firstly it is important to say that most tasks are suited equally for either sexes when the physical differences do not interfere with the ability to perform the task. It was true in the past in the west and even now true in many other countries, that most tasks were in the male domain and others in the female domain. However inherent physical differences played less of a role then. More of it could be attributed to religious, social or cultural mindsets, most of which have been chipped at over the last century. These days, it is not uncommon to find women performing complex physical tasks in the military and men taking on care and nurturing roles as nurses in hospitals.
Having said this, it is true that even in the current equal opportunity environment, many tasks are not equally suited for men and women owing to their inherent physical differences.
While the roles of child rearing can be shared between the sexes, biologically, women are the child bearers and are the only sex that can give birth to and breast-feed a child. This makes men fundamentally ill-equipped to take on roles such as being surrogate mothers for couples that cannot conceive or for breast feeding.
Testesterone in men is tightly linked to muscle growth. This makes men more dominant in tasks that involve using of strength. Although women's body building and weight lifting is a competitive sport, the fundamental need for the male hormone gives most women a disadvantage when compared sex to sex. The preponderance of men as stevedores in the ship building industry or as workers in the construction industry indicates this tilt.
Then there are fundamental roles that men and women are inherently suited for just based on their appearance as men and women. Women models dominate the marketing landscape much more than male models. Advertising for women cosmetics requires women to model for them. On the other hand, it would require a male model to model for a shaving cream ad. While one can find cultural traditions where male actors impersonate women roles, such as in Kabuki, a male dominante theater form of Japan, in the western context, it usually requires a woman to the play the role of a woman and a man to play the role of a man. A man portraying Evita would not have had as much an effect and similarly a woman portraying a Gandhi or a Mohammad Ali would not have the same effect. Similarly a woman's high pitched voice is different in effect from a deep male voice and produces an entirely different effect.
In summary, most tasks are equally suited for men and women primarily because the physical differences in men and women do not play a role in accomplishing them. Many tasks however are the exclusive domain of one of the sexes owing to the physical differences that are either inherent in them or are required to perform them.
