Kind and responsible, women rule the world better than men

The patriarchy has had power for centuries and the results speak for themselves. Isn't it time for change?

- Rethabile Masilo

The poem Wisdom by Helen Moffett begins: “I'm inclined to trust her, / this woman with a child’s clear vision / who points out the scabrous sores / on the emperor's bare bum.” It appears in her 2016 collection Prunings (uHlanga).

In my view, women often possess a clearer vision than most men, along with a natural ability to notice and call out nonsense. This seems to hold true in households as well as in public or governmental settings.

Moffett dedicates the poem to Antjie Krog, a poet I regret discovering too late. Krog’s book Bereft has had a marked influence on my approach to poetry. The stanza in Moffet’s poem ends with the line “she sees magic in unpropitious dust”. The point, of course, is not to suggest that trustworthy men don’t exist or that they're incapable of speaking uncomfortable truths. Nor that untrustworthy women do not exist. That would be an unhealthy suggestion.

What I mean is that more women than men seem to embody the qualities in question instinctively, whereas most men, myself included, have to work at developing “a child’s clear vision”.

Is this a natural trait that is, or has been, selected for? I’m inclined to think so. There is considerable evidence that women, on average, tend to display more kindness and responsibility, likely because of influences both natural and social.

However, these are broad trends rather than fixed destinies. Everyone can develop such characteristics, and individual differences in this respect are often greater than group differences. Nevertheless, it remains the case that women generally have to work less hard than the average man to become kind and responsible.