I have always wondered why certain things like reading, writing, thinking, and teaching are quietly coded as feminine. Why subjects like philosophy, literature, English, and psychology are more “acceptable” for women, while men are often pushed toward science, finance, technology, and business.
Why is being a teacher considered a woman’s job, but being a CEO is a man’s?
Why is curiosity feminine, but dominance masculine?
Why does society celebrate men who use knowledge for profit, but not those who gather it for truth?
I notice it even in colors. Pink is for girls. Navy blue, black, gray those are for boys. It’s not just about preference. It’s symbolic. Women are associated with softness, receptivity, sensitivity. Men with action, competition, outcome.
It has been like this for so long that most people don’t even question it.
But when I read deeper into feminist anthropology and evolutionary history. I started to understand that it wasn’t always this way.
There are credible sources and theories ("Volga Theke Ganga" (ভোল্গা থেকে গঙ্গা) is a Bengali historical fiction novel by Rahul Sankrityayan, translated as "From Volga to Ganga") that suggest early human societies were more matriarchal, or at least egalitarian. Women were respected not just as mothers, but as knowledge keepers, spiritual leaders, healers. Many anthropologists believe that once men understood that women could reproduce, they began to center power around controlling that ability. The narrative shifted. Control of women became a strategy for control of lineage, property, and social structure.
I also read that in ancient times, the physical size difference between men and women wasn’t as pronounced. But over centuries, as social roles became more rigid, so did the way bodies were shaped by labor and survival. Some believe that men began protecting women from other men. But somewhere along the way, that protection became possession.
As a woman doing a PhD in systems engineering, reading about cognition, psychology, and complex systems, I find myself constantly being explained to by men who have read a blog post or watched a YouTube video. It’s funny, yes. But it’s also exhausting. There is a difference between curiosity and performance. Between learning and asserting.
Mansplaining is not just an internet joke. It is a symptom of a system where men are taught that knowing a little is enough to lead, while women must know everything just to be allowed to speak.
I am not bitter about it. I am just observant.
I am aware of how much effort women put into learning. Into teaching. Into explaining things clearly, gently, thoroughly. And I am aware of how often that labor is dismissed as emotional or unnecessary.
But here is the truth I have come to believe:
Knowledge is not gendered.
Curiosity is not gendered.
Depth is not gendered.
What is gendered is how we are taught to relate to knowledge.
Men are trained to wield it.
Women are trained to earn it.
But I want a world where knowing is not about control.
Where studying is not a soft activity but a revolutionary one.
