Why are women so much better at multitasking?

Question

Serious answers please.

Whenever I'm on the phone to any of my female friends, they're never at all bothered by the hours they want to spend chatting. This is because they eat, play games and probably read books simultaneously. Or they can watch TV or a movie while they're talking. I cannot. If I'm watching TV, I'll not listen to whoever's on the phone. I can only seem to concentrate on one thing at a time, but females seem to have this inheret ability to multi-task and divide their concentration evenly amongst everything they're doing. How the hell does that work?

Answer 1

Interesting question. I remember reading about this same observation ages ago. Perhaps I'll try later to find more info.
Anyway, it makes good survival sense. I find that many questions about human behavior can be made sense of when examined through the perspective of evolutionary development. With women a primary role has always been that of motherhood. Motherhood requires focus: feeding the young, ensuring a safe environment, teaching essential survival skills (transmission of knowledge), etc. But other critical roles also need to be filled (the "gathering" of food in hunter-gatherer societies). Sure, meat was a treat but it was not a dependable source of calories. The hunt may or may NOT have been successful. These early humans would have perished had it not been for the tireless efforts of the womenfolk to gather foods such as roots (tubers), berries, fruits, nuts, edible vegetation, etc. In sum, since the dawn of time women have had to mult-task and it should come as no surprise that evolutionary changes become evident in the modern world through observations such as yours.

EDIT:
Sex differences in brain 'wiriring' (as noted below) is absolutely correct. However, how did our brains evolve to be wired differently? A quick and dirty take on Darwin: what gets used alot will develop. What doesn't will die out. Whatever is successful wins, what doesn't - loses. All living things have adapted (evolved) in a response to specific environmental pressures. Male and female brains have evolved into what they now are in response to subtle but significant differences in the environment in which they 'operate' or 'function'. It about NEEDS and what works best.

Answer 2

First of all, there is nothing wrong with you if you can't multi-task. Men and women ARE different. Our brains are wired differently. Women are wired to multi-task for domestic purposes, whereas men are wired more for manual labor per se. Let me try to explain in a way that is understood. Women are social creatures. Used to be that women stayed home with the children and therefore had to deal with more than one person at a time while the man went out and hunted/worked and that was a single task and needed concentration on that single task to accomplish and couldn't be disturbed by distractions or he and his family wouldn't eat. Both roles and wiring of the brain are equally important.

Answer 3

Women have historically had to juggle all of the household responsibilities including children every day of their lives. That requires wearing a lot of hats therefore, it stands to reason that as evolution has taken it's course this ability just continues to grow. If you really think about it men were mostly responsible in history for one job for most of their lives, for example a blacksmith only worked with metal and focused on 1 piece at a time, or a soldier was fighting and strategy. A woman in a household may have had an item break that required repair and repaired it while she was planning dinner and looking after the children all at the same time.

Answer 4

Well, I can't quite multi-task all that well and I'm a female. If I'm reading [and especially reading] or watching a movie, uh...dude, if you don't stop talking to me, you're better off talking to the wall. But if it's chatting on the phone and online, I can do both at the same time and jumble conversations. Like say I'm talking about a crush online and tomorrow's trip on the phone. All of a sudden I may type in: don't forget to bring your toothbrush and I may say on the phone: he was so hot.

But that's just me. I'm not a great multi-tasking person. I like to be in control of ONE thing at ONE time. It makes me feel...more in control.

-ELaine

Answer 5

No.. doing uncomplicated issues some at a time is not any yardstick.. try some thing complicated and then ask.... Wow, guy.. recognize what I did immediately? I had the showering on, did a clean belt on the mower, cut back the acreage (interior the nice and cozy sunlight), planned my dinner, planned my next bypass to get a job, looked after by ability of my feeling son fairly some topics, and concept-about doing fairly to my vehicle, yet discarded it.. all jointly! Gee, wow! You propose soaking the showering up with the showering device operating and protecting one ear on the newborn asleep next door even as planing ahead to dinner is serious agency? What HAVE I been lacking out on those form of years! Footnote:- I have a very beautiful 30 yo community lass expressing pastime... what's my secret? along with your approach you received't have that at sixty 3.... (i recognize the secret.... it is the way I carry myself.. adult adult males on the ex-facilities instantly away assume that i'm an ex-officer of a particular particular corporation.... females have the same reaction alongside their strains..adult adult males.. you';e only were given to study a thanks to be.. regardless of... have mana... my soul mate reported the note.. I ignore)...

Answer 6

Do women have a choice? I don't think so. If I couldn't multi-task I would never have been able to raise three children and work a full time job.

Answer 7

"As complex as it is, it struggles," said Rene Marois, an associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University. "While we get the impression that we are able to do two things at once, such as driving and talking on a cell phone, in reality our brain shuts down one of the functions briefly as we're taking on the other task. All the information in our brain suddenly hits a bottleneck."

So in effect women are better at pretending they are listening to you when they are in fact not paying attention to you. It's all about deception my friend.

Answer 8

It's just something that women have been doing for centuries.I mean,cooking and watching a kid at once are very complicated lol.But there are many girls I know who are not that great at multi-tasking.

Answer 9

they evolved that way, raising babies while grinding corn , chatting, tending a garden, weaving

men mostly would hunt and defend against enemies, so much better to just keep silent and have only one task in mind at a time.

Answer 10

I'm not sure, but maybe the men are retaining more since they are focusing on one task instead of many.