Men and women have very specific physical attributes that determine their gender. Even besides the obvious physical attributes that make men and women different, traits such as body size and strength typically contrast between genders. However, there are also non-physical differences between men and women that have been widely studied and heavily debated. Emotional and psychological differences, such as nurturing, competitiveness, academic abilities, and communication skills, are all non-physical attributes that are widely accepted as differences between men and women.

Many people believe that the non-physical differences between men and women are a result of nurturing, not nature. Some experts believe that men and women are taught to display typical gender characteristics by the example of society. Still others believe that men and women display different emotional and psychological characteristics as a result of their physical differences.

As John Gray, Ph.D. points out in his best-selling book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, communication strategies and nurturing abilities and requirements differ between men and women. Men are simple and women are more complicated, emotionally speaking. Therefore, men and women must understand these differences in order to communicate effectively with each other in a relationship. Whether you personally approach the non-physical differences between men and women with the nurture philosophy or with the belief that they are the result of nature, it seems apparent that men and women have many different emotional and psychological characteristics. While not all women are nurturing and affectionate and not all men are emotionally unattached or unable to communicate effectively, it seems that certain characteristics appear more frequently in one gender or the other.

The non-physical differences between men and women vary in degree from person to person. It may be safer to define such characteristics as a personality difference between people, rather than between the sexes. However, society generally accepts that men are more competitive than women, women are more nurturing than men, and men and women communicate very differently. Whether or not you believe in these differences is not as relevant as whether you can move past the debate of their existence and share your world peacefully with the opposite sex.