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Will she see it coming?
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Is intuition solely a feminine preserve? Do women recognise their intuitive capabilities better than men?
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Photo: T. Singaravelou
GUT FEEL Women, especially mothers, have the habit of acting on their intuition
It’s something innate in most women. An instinctive understanding of situations and people’s feelings.Sujatha Ramanathan, Head of the Department of Sociology, Stella Maris College says, “I think women are more intuitive. I would say
intuition is more a psychological thing. I don’t have a scientific basis with which to corroborate what I am saying. Mothers think of their children more than fathers do and they will know how their children are feeling before they even articulate it.”
Author, Psychiatrist and Counsellor Dr. Vijay Nagaswami also agrees that women are more intuitive.
“Its not that women are hardwired to be more intuitive than men. Its just that since they are more in touch with their emotions they are in a position to recognise their intuitive capabilities better and more importantly respond to them. Intuition like any other human faculty requires to be honed. And the more you act on your intuitions the more they get refined.
Providing a scientific basis to the theory that women are more intuitive Neurologist and Neurosurgeon Dr. Prithika Chary says “Several studies have documented that women are able to get the big picture in a situation, are able to look at things from different points of view, are better at analysing facial expressions displaying various emotions and are quicker at getting the sense of things.
This is believed to be due to the thicker corpus callosum (23 per cent thicker in women than men) which enables more cross talk between the two cerebral hemispheres.”
The corpus callosum is the largest connective pathway in a human brain.
Reinforcing her point about the power of female intuition Dr. Prithika Chary says “Women traditionally know when the men in their life are having a bad day or something is bothering them without having to be told .This is because of their intuitive sense which happens because of their natural ability to better interpret the facial expression and body language and the overall sense of what is happening. Also women tend to use both sides of their brain for many tasks and the overall energy expenditure by the female brain is less than in male brains. More economical use of blood flow and more repeated access of various parts of the brain where several memories are stored imbues women with an ability not to duplicate steps in processing information.”
It is therefore no surprise that women tend to leverage this strength both at the home and the work place. “They most certainly do. Women are good at jobs needing the ability to assess people at first sight for example in reception areas when dealing with conflict and in public relations jobs etc” concurs Dr. Prithika Chary.
Adds Dr Nagaswami, “Intuition is also why many women are sometimes more successful than men at making split second work-related decisions. At home their gut feel often prompts them to take apparently inexplicable though often hugely successful decisions.”
Are all women equally intuitive? “Women who tend to be more in touch with their masculine sides do tend to be less intuitive or at least less capable of responding to what their intuitions tell them,” opines Dr. Nagaswami
We can probably let Dr. Chary have the last word. “Intuition is sometimes defined as wisdom based on experience – so some of us are more intuitive than others. However with conscious attention and practice it is possible to hone and improve our intuitive skills.”
The bottom line of course is that broadly speaking women are more intuitive to start with.
SUDHA UMASHANKER
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