According to John Tierney:
It looks as if personality differences between men and women are smaller in traditional cultures like India's or Zimbabwe's than in the Netherlands or the United States. A husband and a stay-at-home wife in a patriarchal Botswanan clan seem to be more alike than a working couple in Denmark or France. The more Venus and Mars have equal rights and similar jobs, the more their personalities seem to diverge. These findings are so counterintuitive that some researchers have argued they must be because of cross-cultural problems with the personality tests. But after crunching new data from 40,000 men and women on six continents, David P. Schmitt and his colleagues conclude that the trends are real.
Social psychology often reveals more questions than answers and this is no exception. As we approach equal rights, equal pay, and equal opportunity, is it possible we're distinguishing ourselves further by way of the gender gap? Or at least the fellas--who the study suggests are more anxious, assertive, and competitive in progressive, rich countries like Europe and North America. Maybe. But I'm a bit skeptical of these kind of cross-cultural tests--even when it's not hard to highlight anecdotal examples that support them. And while the data was 'crunched', a myriad of not-controlled-for, influential factors leaves me unconvinced... but interested.
