The male illusion that women are sentimental

[rever]

The male illusion that women are sentimental probably
derives from the fact that women are given to such emotional displays as
hugging and crying, indulge in baby-talk with babies, and are avid readers
and prolific writers of romances. It is therefore presumed that they are not
ruthless, tough-minded or cynical. As usual, the realities are rather different.
In a letter to Madame Mohl, an old family friend of hers, Florence
Nightingale, the famous Lady with the Lamp, said:
You say women are more sympathetic than men. Now if I were to
write a book out of my experience, I should begin, Women have no
sympathy. Yours is the tradition - mine is the conviction of
experience.73
One mother, writing to one of her daughters, said of another daughter: {90}
Annie is a hard wee nut, don't get taken in by her tears, she can turn
them on at the touch of a button?74
That should make us wonder at any woman's ever ready river of actress'
tears!
And in comparing her father, Pandit Nehru, with herself, Indira Gandhi
said:
I am less romantic and emotional than he was. Women are more down
to earth than men.75
These claims are borne out by a recent research on European and American
women by Professor Donald Kanter. According to a press report,
Kanter, a psychologist at Boston University, conducted a survey of
2250 European women for an advertising firm. He uncovered layer
upon layer of 'staggering cynicism.' Eight out of 10 women thought
most people lie to get what they want, more than 80 per cent agreed
that people inwardly dislike putting themselves out to help others, and
that it's harder and harder to make true friends. 'I'd expect the gentler
sex to be softer, more charitable,' Kanter concluded. 'The responses
we got showed most European women think people are liars, reality is
money, and an unselfish person is a pathetic 'figure. That's why they
despised Jimmy Carter.'
Kanter has now finished a new survey of middle class American
wives and is dismayed by the results. About 50 percent believe that
most people are just out for themselves and nearly two-thirds agree
with the European women that by and large human beings are selfish,
mendacious and money mad. 'The central tendencies are quite
alarming,' Kanter said. 'I never expected to see numbers so large.'76
Poor Professor Kanter! One of his cherished illusions about women seems
to have been shattered, and he seems quite shocked! One may well marvel
at the sentimental education which blinded him to women's basic cynicism.
Anyway, if Florence Nightingale and Indira Gandhi are to be believed,
Kanter's finding is not outlandish, and the cynic in Mrs America is the cynic
in every girl. {91}