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Louise C asked in Social ScienceGender Studies · 1 decade ago

What makes a man respect a woman?

A question posed on here earlier suggested that feminism is about respect for women rather than rights for women. So I would like to ask the men on here what qualities or abilities in a woman make you feel respect for her?

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    The same reasons I respect anyone else, man or woman, boy or girl, homosexual or straight.

    I respect them if they try to earn respect instead of demanding it as 'strong, independent women'.

    I respect them if they are patient and understanding instead of shrill, bossy and domineering.

    I know these might not be very valid reasons, but it's hard to find a 'respectable' woman who's not shrill and domineering and doesn't demand respect.

    Kindness, gentleness and the rest are human traits and not feminine traits, so I left them out as this question is relevant to female characteristics men respect.

  • 1 decade ago

    An equally good question is, "What makes a man able to respect a woman?" Being able to respect someone is a quality just as being respectable is. You have to seek out a man/men who is/are capable of respect, then being respected is much easier. One essential component also is the ability to accept respect...we see all the time people who sabotage relationships because they haven't seen themselves as worthy, so they don't believe it when they experience it.

    Men vary significantly more than women in many aspects(in men, there are three times the amount of mental retardation, three times the amount of psychopathology, and a similarly disproportionate amount of genius). Put simply, men are all over the board, while women are more similar in mental traits. For someone seeking respect from a man, I'd say just keep hunting, have respect for yourself, then the man may come along who will acknowledge respectable traits - probably many men will acknowledge respectable traits and even more will appreciate those respectable traits without showing their appreciation. One thing about respectable deeds/traits, there are a lot of people who are inspired by others but never have the ability to, or the impetus to, acknowledge the inspiring people.

    Some common respectable traits:

    1)evidence of determination and hard work, such as advancement in career or physical developement.

    2)morale integrity, such as standing on principles against personal gain, or honesty.

    3)compassion and empathy.

    [in my personal observation, the people who seem to be the wealthiest, best looking, or are the smartest are rarely the most respected in society]

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    True respect is a very elusive thing. It gets even harder to pin down when the person receiving the respect might get on the person's nerves by being either inconsiderate, or overly arrogant (not just your average arrogance.)

    In the workplace, at what she does, she needs to hold their own (who respects a broken chain link?). In what she does, she needs to act efficiently (who respects a wasteful person?)

    I won't pretend to know about the specifics, but I know that these two MUST be present

    Source(s): Especially so if she's my superior.
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    The same characteristics that I respect in a man. However if I can tell that someone doesn't respect me, it makes it very hard for me to respect them back. As a man I don't feel a lot of respect from feminists, to say the least e.g. this is from Prof Germaine Greer, often featured in the UK media:

    "God knows how many women already have no use for their men, who are all too often idle and incompetent both as wage-earners and around the house, uninterested in the children and hopeless in bed…"

    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20...

  • 1 decade ago

    the most of it is the respect that we can give each other and when it comes that we can work in a team and grow together that respect is the women in the leader in Meany ways for which we can not list for it would take long.

    love respect to place the things in the home in some order and when we can work together we have qualities that we both benefit

  • 1 decade ago

    Respect is not an entitlement, it must be earned. I believe it's primarily based on one's character, regardless on one's accomplishments. If a woman is loving, kind, loyal, generous, helpful, honest, and hard-working, then she can expect a decent man to appreciate and value her character and show her due respect. A woman who doesn't manifest such characteristics has no basis for expecting respect from men.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    The way she carries herself, there accomplishments, attitude. To be completely honest its more of what level of respect. I will respect the random woman walking down the street, but I will have more respect for a single mother or female politician or doctor because I know something about them.

    Not so much love. I respect Hilary Clinton and the woman across the street for raising her kids by herself, doesnt mean I love them.

  • 1 decade ago

    When he chooses to do so, just like when a woman chooses to respect a man, its a choice.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Well, one would hope men had the honor to respect women like Mara Prentiss, Quantum Mechanics physicist ( Harvard) who was the first person in history to recently stop a photon in mid-air and take a snapshot if it. That snapshot, by the way revealed a pattern that was like a HUGE missing link in a Chaos pattern research project I'm doing and her work and other female physicists' work have contributed significantly to CERN's current mind-boggling human-condition-changing team project being conducted at the laboratory’s flagship research facility, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). That experiment in August, I believe, will change the world. It's the pinnacle of human scientific achievement and exploration. Respect for such women has traditionally been withheld by men based on ego-fragilities and dishonest / dishonorable character weakness and delusions of "male intellectual superiority" and self-importance.

    http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/pre...

  • 1 decade ago

    i would say respect varies from one country to another and one culture to another...but in general would be ....respect for a woman will be based onhow much she respect herself..the way she dresses, talks, attitudes etc etc...

    she she respect herself..the rest will generally follow through...

    PEACE

    Jaydee

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