BTW, one really telling rejoinder to those who think that women are not more relationship focused — I read a survey a few years back. In it, a group of men and a group of women were asked who their best friend was. About 70% of the men said their best friend was their wife or girlfriend. But only 20% of women said their best friend was their husband — most women said their best friend was another woman. This is because the type of open, emotional nurturing that a best friend gives — women were doing it for their partners, but when the needed that, they often turned to other women because men were not doing it for them.

Anecdotally, I’ve seen this in groups of friends.

My bringing this up is not intended to put men down, any more than a man bringing up the fact that men tend to feel more comfortable with tools is demeaning to women.

As a woman, this is something (using tools) that I’ve had to work on because no one ever taught me when I was growing up, but fortunately I’ve had (mostly men) friends who have helped me become more comfortable doing things with my hands.

Similarly, for men, hopefully they are not embarrassed to accept help from women friends if they want to become better at areas where women seem to have an advantage.

Acknowledging that men and women are treated differently in society and so may bring different skill sets into a relationship is not demeaning to either party, I don’t think. What is demeaning is to imply that men or women are somehow broken because they don’t have the same skill set, or that both parties don’t deserve to be acknowledged, treated with respect, etc.