Are Women Actually Better than Men?

The question about whether women are better/kinder/more nurturing/more spiritual than men is one that has been debated since general authorities started putting their women on pedestals. I heard it again the otherday in an LDS meeting.

Are women more nurturing? Are they more patient? More spiritual?

It doesn't really make sense and it doesn't really appear to hold true in actual day-to-day experience. When I look around, I see lots of good women, but I also see lots of good men. I have four brothers. They are all good men. I have two sons. They are both good men. My husband is a good man. Young fathers are showing a good deal more of nurturing and caring of their children than our fathers did and I think it was culture that prevented our fathers from getting more involved with us. If the truth be told, our father, the gruff, rough and tumble man that he was, was more nurturing to us than our mother was.

My experience is that there are lots of good men and lots of not-so-good men, but the same hold true for women.

A friend of mine once approached Sister Chieko Okazaki after a talk she gave about this very topic in which she had said essentially that men overestimate the goodness of their women. My friend asked "Why do General Authorities always talk about how much better women are than men." She simply replied "They are just being kind."

And the ultimate argument against women being inherently better than men would be than it is hardly fair if women had an easier time living the commandments yet being judged by the same standards, would it? The Lord would have had to come up with a stiffer set of rules just for the women if the existing rules were easy for them.

But then if women were actually better than men, they would think it was totally fine if God did that. They would think that God was chastening them because He loves them so much. Women would never see that as unfairness if they were so innately good.

Women are never sarcastic either.