Is Intuition Really Just a Woman’s Trait?

By Lori Chance
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We’ve all heard the term “women’s intuition”, as if this is a trait that only belongs to women. Could that be true? Are men really more logical and less in tune with their feelings?

How It All Started

The differences between men and women – not just the physical but the psychological and emotional – were identified a long, long time ago. I’d hazard to guess it was Adam who first realized that Eve not only looked unlike him, but had really different thought processes. If it hadn’t been for Eve listening to that wily serpent, she might never have plucked the apple and taken a bite!

Some years after Adam’s revelations, Aristotle made the observation that men were rational beings. He didn’t use the term “man” to indicate all of humankind; he really meant that only males were rational. Women were apparently inferior in many ways; the lack of reason and logic in their thinking being the main determinant.

No, according to men throughout the ages, women are ruled by their emotions. Because of the abundance of estrogen and that time of month when they become completely irrational, it only stood to reason that women used intuition rather than facts to make decisions.

The Reality

The truth is that there are physical differences between the genders; in fact a woman’s brain is not the same as a man’s. One way it’s different is in the left hemisphere – that part of the brain that produces linear processing involved in such typically masculine subjects as science and math. The left hemisphere in young girls develops faster than it does their male counterparts. Does this really have anything to do with whether or not their thought processes use logic? Probably not.

If you think about intuition, the definition is that it is merely a way to come to a conclusion that relies on unconscious data. In other words, intuition is a way of using facts from prior experience, but not necessarily being conscious of those facts – those niggling feelings at the back of our minds.

Women, who pay more attention to emotions and feelings, supposedly are more in touch with their intuitive side.

But what about men? Don’t they use intuition, too? Consider a male scientist, with all his emphasis on logic and reason and rational thought, who has to use some form of intuition in order to come up with a new hypothesis for testing. He takes his past experience and perhaps unconscious knowledge and applies to that a new theory which he can then test for accuracy.

And women are no different. Except that with women, their intuition is used more for determining whether or not a new acquaintance is trustworthy or if there’s a reason to suspect their husband of cheating. It’s the same thought process, it’s just used in a different way.

According to society, intuition is a feminine trait so it’s all right for women to say they used their intuition to make a decision. It’s not okay, however, for a man to say so.

Intuition is not ESP, it’s based on real data and when used properly, becomes a very powerful tool. So why not take advantage of it? Power is usually considered a masculine trait.

When it comes down to it, “women’s intuition” is nothing more than a cultural definition. I think we would all – male or female – be wise to trust our intuitive feelings more.