Comparing The Genders

I had a conversation earlier today with a good friend of mine about the difference between men and women and the way we react to situations. He had been having a discussion with another girl about chivalry and how if a man does not step up to do something then he may have failed to be chivalrous but if a woman calls him out on it then she has failed to be a lady in that situation. I gave my input that her failure would depend on context, I stated that I believed if the woman simply observed the lacking behavior without insulting the man then she could still be considered a lady.

He attempted to call her but the message he left was completely misconstrued and it caused an argument. This led to our conversation about the logical vs emotion responses of the genders. I could not agree more that women are more emotional while men are more logical. I will not say that I think one is better than the other. I can see times where emotion would be the more appropriate way to handle something while I can easily say that logic definitely has its place as well. For the most part it is simply a different way of addressing concerns, no better no worse.

As I was talking to him about this it got me wondering if these different ways of thinking effect the way each gender writes. I have a number of writer friends both male and female and while I enjoy reading their work I have noticed a common theme of the perspective matching the author. I myself write generally from the female perspective simply because it is easier for me. However for my current work in progress Sharing Strength there are a number of times I need to describe not only what the characters are doing but also what they are feeling and how they are dealing with the very difficult situations surrounding them.

There are six main characters and four of them are men. I need to describe them, show their trials, tribulations and triumphs and be as accurately as possible but after this discussion I had I wonder if I will be able to show them in a true male view as opposed to injecting my more emotional female perspective. Because the book is told in third person and jumps points of view from character to character this is a definite must.

I may need to at least make sure that I get both male and female beta readers to go over the manuscript once the project is finished. What other gender concerns have you noticed when comparing the sexes? When it comes to writing can one gender truly capture the other with honesty and objection?