notasheep: As a high school kid who has never given birth, I can’t really identify with that part of the joke- my mom seemed to… edited. My point is that if compassion and sympathy are female traits, then nothing women decide to do is going to really change that. If anything, those women who are compassionate are going to channel that and try to use it in their lives. Besides, saying that women are compassionate is like saying that girls like pink- it’s a generalization borne out, quite possibly, by statistics, but that doesn’t mean that any woman you bump into on the street is compassionate and likes pink. I mean, the gemara says “nashim daasan kalos” which, regardless of what it actually means, does not necessarily mean that EVERY woman has daas kal or whatever.
Also, it all depends on what the person wants to do with whatever they have. I want to be a doctor (apparently I’m not supposed to say that, though, as it’s giving away who I am- don’t get it, but moving forward)- is it because I have a sadistic passion for dissecting people, or because I want to help others? Our cores affect our chitzonius. I don’t think that a woman who loses her sense of compassion had that happen because she picked such a job- she picked a job because that’s what she was like inside.