Multitasking: Function of Gender or of Age?

I have seen comments like this before as I've browsed the internet for gender-related stories to talk about for this blog.  I find this one to be a little hard to swallow, sometimes.  If you think about it, generally women are the caregivers at home, though it seems that this is leveling out a bit as we progress through this century.  But assuming they are generally the caregivers at home, it would seem to follow that they would be better at multitasking.  Taking care of children and a household does provide a high level of flexible multitasking, and that seems to increase exponentially as the number of kids increases, I'm sure.  So perhaps that has given women the edge in this ability.  It will be interesting to see what happens over time with this sort of thing.  It seems that more and more males are becoming the family caregiver, if the responsibilities are not shared by both genders in the family unit.  So probably over time the genders will equalize in the ability to multitask.

The way in which I feel this discrepancy is hard to swallow is in the area of technology.  That seems to me to be more a function of age than of gender.  The younger generations seem to be hardwired to handle technology right out of the womb.  But older generations, mine included, just don't seem to have the same knack for technology that the younger ones do.  And there seems to be something innately multitasking in nature about technology these days.  We can do some much so quickly and sometimes even simultaneously.  Sometimes that's a lot for someone from the pencil and paper era to cope with!  It will be interesting to see how this changes and develops over time and advancement.  Stay tuned!  :)


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/women-better-than-men-multitasking-study-finds_n_4175470.html

Women Are Better Multitaskers Than Men, Study Finds

Posted: 10/29/2013 5:59 pm EDT Updated: 10/29/2013 5:59 pm EDT