It is said that women have an integrated mind and men a compartmentalised one: if a particular event happens in one part of a woman’s life, it reflects across every part of her life, whereas for a man, if something happens in one part of his life, it is accounted for differently from his other events and his other dealings with the outside world.
An example: if something happens to a woman’s child, her mind is busy with the child in every relationship she has, she thinks about it all the time and gets through shopping and driving and so on with that thought. But if something happens to a man at work, it stays at work, and once he leaves he can deal with other people separately and regardless of it, or even be a good, cheerful husband at home.
In general, you cannot say which of these behaviours (#integrated_mind orcompartmentalised_mind) suits life today better. But in describing women’s integrated mind I would say: if the care of children were in the fathers’ hands instead of the mothers’, I think no newborn could live to see youth, and the human race would die out!
I think care systems should bedesigned around thestructure_of_how_women’s_minds_work, and I thinkrecommender_systems (#expert_systems) and action functions should be organised in a classified way. I cannot give scientific evidence, but I think the realm of analysis, the realm of design and the realm of action functions should be kept distinct.
Related: Multi-perspective observability and the essay on MCDM and love (the same question of where to think systematically or in compartments and where not, this time about emotional decision-making).