Women Are Better At Expressing Emotions, Right? Why It’s Not That Simple
Parents coach their sons to present a facade of emotional toughness and their daughters to admire that facade in men. There is a commonly held cultural narrative which goes something like this: Men who share their emotions make better husbands and fathers. Women value this in a prospective partner because women are already naturally able to share their emotions. In a nutshell, women are the emotionally able ones, men can learn to be. Growing more empowered relational capacities for men and women is crucial to making a better world. But the first step to getting there is to set aside these kinds of simplistic ideas about how we all operate emotionally and relationally. So, for the record, women do not automatically navigate emotional expression better than men. It would be nice if they did, but given how our culture operates, it is simply not possible. We need to acknowledge that gaining relational intelligence, the ability to navigate our shared emotional landscapes,