Again, I think that we're demonstrably different, but that we're largely distinct because of culturally inculcated notions...when we were mostly hunter-gatherers necessity defined us. We moved in search of food and survival, and propagated the species. The shift to an agrarian existence brought the first real notes of ease, allowed for settling, the beginning of meaningful government and life as more than subsistence. Necessity still played a role, but a lot of what had been born of it was refined and institutionalized within the social constructs we fashioned. The industrial revolution saw more of the same, though it also began to lead to a challenge on the point, as women began, over time, to question some of those inculcated traditions, notably the ones that reduced their own right and place within compacts. The challenge of modern life is partly found in that upheaval, as technology has redefined the assumptions at the base of the social order.
We no longer live, largely, in an a world where biology determines roles. Women can provide and men can nurture. Leisure contemplation and the reality of relative plenty, among industrial nations, has reshaped the conversation and expectations. Science has underscored that beyond our reproductive functions we're much more similar than we ever were different and the question becomes, how do we survive that shift and profit by it? Or will it prove too much for us? Will more primitive social constructs breed us out of existence?
