>>Another comment. There are some large changes in western culture (and asian) just now. Young women do not want to start a family, they prefer to stay free and without kids. This is happening all over the western countries, and the demographics in Spain and Italy show some really bad trends. Bad in the sense that financing social security and pensions might be impossible as there will not be coming generations to tax.. (Again, dont get me wrong. Women are of course entitled to make their own choices!)


My last female crew, with whom I enjoyed racing alot, was a doctor, earned more than I did, will never have kids and is as free minded as Ernest Hemmigway. She is to the left of me politically and more active as well. Right now she is in Africa working in a hospital. I fear she won't be back soon.

Still despite these changes in western society and western womenhood she displayed a lot of the symthomes I described Earlier (apart from the one about creating a family.)

For this reason and others I'm not a big believer in the Western myth about "women catching up to men and being the same".

One reason is that men and women will never be the same and both of them really don't want to as well.

The other reasons is that is ignores obvious genetic based differences only to be politically correct or whatever. This ignores doing things better. Women are definately better in several things than men and the same goes the other way around. It is also more fun discovering who does what best and how you can devided tasks so that the team is better still.

Also I've been around long enough to know that not everything is culture based. There are quite a few things that are genetically encoded or that body build has stimulated to develop in a different direction.

I also think there is absolutely no problem with "a womans choice" Afterall they are as hard pressed to ignore their genetic imprint as much as men are with theirs. We as a people will survive no matter what culture we live in.

And of course young men and young women will say alot of things and then get hooked up with eachother at a later age anyway. It is the way of the world and the universe even. Just like how the 60's couldn't destroy the institude of marriage. The people at that time were foolish to believe that the even could endanger it. An union of that shape and meaning is to much inbedded in our psyche and genetic codes although its outward look may change over time and geographically.

In short; I don't think that the "large changes in western culture" will make women more physical or significantly change their unique way of looking at life and sports for that matter.

Wouter