International Women’s Day

• By Gino

International Women’s Day is coming up in March and I think that is quite special. Not for the reason you might think. I think it is special because I believe it is a shame that such a day is necessary. First let me go to the definition of this day. International Women’s Day is a global day that celebrates women’s social, economic, cultural and political achievements. The day also marks a call to action to accelerate gender equality. Worldwide groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or to strengthen women’s equality.

This means that in 2021, gender equality still does not exist.

The definition of gender equality

I find it interesting that despite the fact that yoga has found its origin in (among others) India, this is, at the same time, a country where women are treated to a large extent, as lesser one. A country where women get sour thrown in their face when a man no longer wants them. Where women end up in jail or are rejected by their community after being raped because this means she cheated. I would love to invite you to watch the short documentary Period on Netflix about the stigma on menstruation in India

Or did you know that in the Western world women often still earn a lot less for the exact same job as a man? Did you know that women in the Netherlands (if they are physically and mentally fit) have only been allowed to join the Marine Corps since 2017, and are allowed to work on board submarines in 2020? That it was not until 1982 that the New York Convention came into effect, stating that men and women had equal rights in the performance of public office. Thanks to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others. If you are interested please watch the wonderful documentary RBG. 

So we still have a long way to go and let me be clear. I emphasize women here because it is now International Women’s Day, but of course the same applies to many other forms of discrimination.

Female vs male brain

Of course there have been doctors who have examined the brains of men and women to see if there is a difference. Naturally, at first, with the intention to be able to demonstrate that the man’s brain is better. For example, there is an 1895 quote from social psychologist Gustave Le Bon, who used his portable cephalometer to declare that women “represent the most inferior forms of human evolution.

There is a small anatomical difference between the brains of men and women, but it is striking that there are sometimes even bigger differences within the same group * (ie women / women and men / men). The anatomical difference between men and women is also far less important than the difference in connections between the brainstems. In fact, it is only very recently that specialists have gone so far as to admit that the anatomical difference does not make the male brain better than the female brain. And I’m talking about just 6 years here.

Overall, the results indicate that male brains tend to deal more easily with the connection between perception and coordinated action, while female brains are often more focused on communicating between analytic and intuitive processing modes.

Is there a difference between man and woman? Fortunately! I love being a woman and I love my manly man. Do you feel both at the same time or maybe even nothing? Fantastic right? Enjoy it! But it is time to see that we are all one and that we try our best every day to be less judgemental to ourselves and to others.

Ahimsā

Jeanne

ps. Would you like to read more about the brain?

I recommend Gendered Brain:
The new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain written by Gina Rippon

* 6. Joel, D. et al. Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 112, 15468–15473 (2015).