Gender Differences: Innate or Learned?

Thank you everyone for your interesting discussions.

I tend to agree with Juan--that there aren't any real differences between males and females. I've observed male/female relationships in different cultures, and I think that where strong differences do exist, this is do to learned social behavior, which is strongly influenced by political, religious, and cultural norms.

In societies where women have the freedom to make other choices rather than merely getting married and having children, we see that they enter into politics, science, a variety of professions. And many of them make the decision to live independently, or to delay marrying and having children until they are older.

Also, in societies where the men have freedom to make other choices, we see them choosing roles that are traditionally limited to women, such as staying home to raise families, becoming nurses or other fields traditionally dominated by women. I know a number of couples who decided together that the woman would work because she makes more money, and the man would stay home to raise the children, because he wanted to spend more time with the children. Both people in the relation are happy because they are free to choose to do what they love.

What about your countries? How are the gender relations where you are from?