Is There Anything Good About Men?

“Is There Anything Good About Men?”

Simply posing this leading question raises eyebrows, with its hint that men might outperform women in any way. Despite the commonly held notion that women outdo men in various different areas, society doesn’t allow for much discussion of the opposite idea. The explanation of gender inequity generally takes one of two forms: either the age-old belief that men dominate because they are better at most things than women, or the newer conceit that men and women are equal but that men have conspired to keep women down.

Yet another explanation is based on diverse abilities and “tradeoffs” between the genders: Men and women excel in different domains for good reasons, some biological and some cultural. A man’s ability in one area offsets his weakness in another, and the same applies to women, too.

Men and women fill unique roles within cultures, and they should value each other’s contributions rather than try for one-upmanship. For instance, some feminists cite salary differences between the sexes as a proxy for society’s prejudice against women. In fact, social science finds several reasons for the gender pay gap that don’t include...