Male/female marriage is better, more logical

It is good to be a woman – as we know, women have certain characteristics that enhance relationships and our lives. It is also good to be a man – men also have characteristics that benefit relationships and society.

These differences seems obvious to most of us. A large study involving over 10,000 people in 2012 (The Distance Between Mars and Venus: Measuring Global Sex Differences in Personality, Del Giudice, Booth, Irwing) confirm what we all know anyway, with the largest differences between the sexes being in sensitivity, warmth, and apprehension (higher in females), and emotional stability, dominance, rule-consciousness, and vigilance (higher in males).

So, having both men and women together brings complementarity and balance. It’s taken a long time for the political system, for instance, to recognise the imbalance caused by the absence of women in politics.

So if it is better to have men and women together in politics, at the macro-level of society, surely it is better to have women and men together at the basic unit, “the natural primary and fundamental group of society”, namely the institution of marriage, on which the family is founded?

Better means not equal. I suggest that we keep our constitution logical and rational. I am voting no.

Geraldine Aherne

Bray

Co Wicklow