As I’ve written in so many Mindful Masculinity essays, several strong personality trait disparities exist between men and women.
The chart below, pulled from Clearer Thinking’s Gender Continuum Test, shows how overall, women are demonstrably more unselfish, compassionate and emotionally self-aware than men. These are traits that generally appear in individuals who default to helping carry other people’s loads in relationships.
I had the great fortune to recently interview Jeannie Ewing, part-time copy editor and proofreader for indie authors, as well as a hybrid author (both self- and traditionally published) and public speaker. Jeannie also writes the I Grow Strong Again Substack newsletter, and holds a B.A. in Psychology and a Master’s in School Counseling.
Equally important, Jeannie is a wife and mom of five children, including a daughter with a genetic craniofacial condition — Apert syndrome. Mash all of this together, and what you have are a lot of stressors on Jeannie’s time, thoughts and her heart.
This is what Jeannie and I spent 60 minutes talking about earlier this fall, trying to help illustrate how so many women adopt a persona in life that leads too many women to becoming default caregiver in relationships.
We covered a lot of ground, but especially focused on how cisgender men and women in a partnered relationship can better communicate about the load they’re carrying, so they can balance more of that load across both partners’ shoulders.
Like Jeannie says in this edition of the Mindful Masculinity podcast, there’s lots of good guys out there with the right intentions. We just need to refocus more male partners on the needs of all of the members of a partnered household, this way everyone’s happiness has the opportunity to flourish, while minimizing suffering as much as possible.
We hope you enjoy the conversation, and look forward to your comments.
