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Gender & Equality

Women Are Too Emotional to Decide

Women's decision-making capacity is dismissed using the stereotype of emotional irrationality

Free intermediate 8 minutes
The Situation

What They Said

“Women are more emotional so they cannot make good decisions. We need someone rational in this role.”
This phrase is used in a professional, committee, or family decision-making context to exclude a woman from a decision-making role by attributing a generalised emotional irrationality to her gender.
Your Response

How to Respond

I understand this is a commonly held view, but it is not supported by evidence — and more importantly, it is not a lawful basis for a decision. PEPUDA prohibits practices that impair women's dignity by attributing inferior characteristics to them as a class. The Employment Equity Act prohibits unfair discrimination in employment practices on the ground of gender. I am asking to be assessed on my individual demonstrated capability, not on a stereotype.
Tone: calm, factual, non-confrontational
The Fallacy

Hasty Generalisation / Non Sequitur

This argument takes a cultural stereotype about women's emotional tendencies and applies it universally to justify excluding an individual woman from decision-making. It is a hasty generalisation because it draws a conclusion about an individual from an unproven group attribute. It is also a non sequitur because even if some women were more emotionally expressive, this would not logically follow that they are incapable of rational decisions — emotional intelligence and sound judgement are not mutually exclusive, and research consistently shows the opposite.

What the Law Says

Your Legal Foundation

Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 (PEPUDA)
Section 8(d) — Prohibition of Unfair Discrimination on the Ground of Gender
“No person may unfairly discriminate against any person on the ground of gender, including... any practice, including traditional, customary or religious practice, which impairs the dignity of women and undermines equality between men and women.”
Attributing inferior rational capacity to women as a class impairs their dignity and undermines equality — this falls squarely within PEPUDA's prohibition.
Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998
Section 6(1) — Prohibition of Unfair Discrimination
“No person may unfairly discriminate, directly or indirectly, against an employee, in any employment policy or practice, on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex...”
Excluding a woman from a role or decision-making responsibility on the basis of a gender stereotype is unfair discrimination in an employment practice.
What Scripture Says

God's Word on This

Proverbs 8:1 (NET)
“Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?”
In Scripture, wisdom is personified as a woman — calling out publicly, exercising understanding, and inviting all people to follow her counsel. The idea that women lack rational wisdom has no scriptural basis.
Judges 4:5 (NET)
“She used to sit under the Date Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would go up to her to have their disputes settled.”
Deborah exercised judicial decision-making at the national level — Israel came to a woman for rational dispute resolution, affirming that sound judgement is not a gendered capacity.
Practice

Drill Prompt

They say: 'We need someone who can keep emotions out of it — and frankly, that is more of a male trait.' You respond by: Rejecting the gendered stereotype, citing PEPUDA and the Employment Equity Act, and requesting assessment on individual demonstrated competence.

What They'll Say Next

Blindside Counter-Arguments

After you give your response, they may push back. Here is how to handle each counter-argument.

They might say: “This is just biology — women's hormones make them less stable.”
Your response: Whether or not there are biological differences, the law does not permit those differences to be used as a blanket basis for excluding individuals from roles. Each person must be assessed individually. Using a group biological generalisation to exclude an individual is still unfair discrimination under both PEPUDA and the Employment Equity Act.
Legal basis: PEPUDA Section 8; Employment Equity Act Section 6
They might say: “I am just being honest — it is not official policy.”
Your response: Unfair discrimination does not need to be written into formal policy to be unlawful. Statements made in a professional context that reveal a gender-based basis for employment decisions constitute discrimination in practice regardless of whether they appear in official documents.
Legal basis: Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, Section 6
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