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From The Newspaper (33) 　Gender (9)

May 5th, 2023

Physically tough and dangerous jobs are worked mainly by men, like policemen, firefighters, soldiers, fishermen, construction workers, even taxi drivers and salesmen, as they meet strangers alone. On the other hand, occupations which seem to be more suitable for women are human care type of jobs: nurses, nursery school teachers, nursing home caregivers. Elementary schools and junior high schools are also places where a lot of female teachers work. Maybe women, who give birth and raise their children until a certain time period passes, are suitable to take care of people who need care. How about politicians? In the long history of human beings, men have been predominantly as rulers. He could easily think of kings in Egypt, Emperors in China. And, thinking that human beings evolved from apes, leaders in ape societies must have affected humans' situation. But, are all leaders in ape societies male? So, he checked on the internet. A website read about examples at the Ueno Zoo which has been running for 80 years and has a lot of apes. In the artificial monkey hill, named 'saru-yama', in the Ueno Zoo, there have been 15 bosses until now, 10 male and 5 female bosses. In the Takaosan Monkey Site's case, there have been 4 male and 1 female bosses. So, 20 or 30% have been female bosses. The author of the article explained how bosses are decided in the group. There are two ways how bosses are chosen : by blood relationship and by fighting. But, this is for male bosses. In the case of female bosses, it is regular that when her husband dies, she takes over his leadership position. Maybe this was taken over by human beings. Until democracy started, feudal lords ruled each area getting lands by fighting, they were succeeded in their positions mainly to their sons. If there were no sons or brothers, it was handed over to their daughters, although it was temporary. The article mentioned that the most important role for monkey bosses is to settle fights among aggressive monkeys, so the group becomes safe and secure. In the feudal lords' case, their biggest mission was to make the lands safe and secure, and get profits from the lands. The article explained the differences between monkey groups which are led by a male monkey boss and groups which are led by a female monkey boss. In a group led by a male monkey boss, each monkey's position order is strict, if some of them disturb it, the boss will attack them and teach them discipline physically. In this case, sometimes weak monkeys can't get fed easily because they are situated in the lowest position and superiors are served first. On the other hand, in a group led by a female monkey boss, she doesn't insist on the order so strictly. Actually, she can't afford to look over the details, so the positioning order of the monkeys becomes calm. In this case, weak monkeys can get fed easier. So, is a group led by a female monkey more relaxed and happy? No. The author explained that in the female monkey boss's group, there are a lot of conflicts among aggressive (male) monkeys, so instructors in the zoo have to pay more attention when the boss is female. Politicians' case. About politicians of your country and executives of your company, which do you want, male or female? Maybe female politicians are suitable to evade war, but it might allow a country to invade your country. Maybe female executives are soft negotiators to negotiate a deal. And, they might have their profits taken by competitors. (To be continued)

No.520



*predominantly :主に、支配的に
*evolve :進化する
*ape :類人猿
*take over :引き継ぐ
*feudal :封建制の、領地の
*discipline :規律
*conflict :衝突
*evade :逃れる