Does sex of owner have any role in treatment of parrots?

[Michael]

Ok, since everyone already thinks I'm controversial anyway, I may as well ask to see what proportion of you think parrot care can vary by sex. Yes, I know there's exceptions, we may or may not be able to define what the differences are, etc. But in general do you observe or feel that there are differences between men and women in how they feed, hold, train, and interact with parrots (and any other activities I may have left out that are part of the parrot ownership experience)?

Do you believe it strictly applies to the personality of the owner regardless of sex? Or can you see generalizations that could apply to at least the majority of one sex as compared to the other? If there are differences, can one sex learn from the other? What kinds of things do you think both sexes totally agree on or handle similarly? What is your prediction for the poll prior to voting and are you surprised that the results are whatever they are (please don't bash anyone for thinking one way or the other, the poll is not scientific and the sample not large enough to speak for all parrot owners... this is not to be sexist but to see if/how human gender roles can apply to parrots... perhaps member will agree that they don't and then we won't poll based on sex anymore, or maybe it will say that it's a prominent divergence, fair enough?)

Note I used the worth treatment as a best attempt of summing up everything that goes into what we do with parrots and is not to signify or qualify the activities.

[Margaret]

The sex of the owner has nothing to do with a treatment of parrots.

What has to do with it:
- if the care-taker(I don't like word owner) is well oriented and educated and willing to educate himself/herself more about his/her parrot/s
- if care-taker really is animal lover and more important bird-person and not just buy himself/herself a toy, which after time is bothering him/her
- if care-taker is willing to sacrifice a lot of his/her time/money/space/lovely furniture to make his/her bird happy
etc., etc...

Bottom line my answer is: It doesn't matter if I'm male or female. What's matter is if I was raised to care for animals, take my last money(sometimes) to go to the vet when my pet is in need. What is the sex to do with it? Nothing. It's our level of humanity!

[Kim S]

Oh boy. Are you sure you wish to open that can of worms?

Yes, I do believe theres a difference in how male or female owners treat their parrots. Just as I believe there are differences in how they theat their dogs, children and friends. It doesnt mean either is doing something wrong. Theres just a difference in approach.
Men and woman are just fundamentally different in a coupe of very important ways.

[kaylayuh]

I don't think the sex of the owner has very much to do with anything. Often, women are seen as the weaker sex and often more emotional. Thus, I think many men would assume that women are focused on the emotional aspects of decision making with regards to parrot ownership rather than the logical aspects.

As entrancedbymyGCC said, being a women in any kind of science field often gets you this reaction. I've found it's difficult for women to be taken seriously for a variety of reasons. Generally, the men I've interacted with in these fields assume that women don't have the critical thinking capabilities to be able to perform such tasks. Though it's much less pronounced now, gender disparities are still an issue in a very great number of fields.

Regardless of that, I make decisions for my birds based on what I've researched and have talked to professionals about. If there were a benefit to food management that my vet agreed with, we'd try that. But because my birds were getting dangerously low in weight, we both logically concluded that the best thing for them was to be able to free feed. The decision was strictly what was good for them, not because I think it's mean to withhold food.

[Michael]

Bottom line my answer is: It doesn't matter if I'm male or female. What's matter is if I was raised to care for animals, take my last money(sometimes) to go to the vet when my pet is in need. What is the sex to do with it? Nothing. It's our level of humanity!

This is interesting. So you don't think there is any noticeable difference how the majority of women vs men hold parrots, how they approach them, how they talk to them, how they react to biting, etc?

I totally understand that caring vs not owner is a very individual thing. I'm not saying that one sex cares more than the other (though I'm not ruling it out entirely, I wanna hear what everyone says about it), what I'm asking is if you notice ANY differences in how one sex does something with parrots than the other in the majority of cases.

[Michael]

Let me add that majority may not be the only relevant word to use. If you can say that you find one sex doing x more often than the other even where a clear majority is not made but a definitive difference is seen, this would still be relevant to bring up.

I can think of cases where I've observed only a minority of all participants partake in this but would guess it was more from one sex than the other (no, I'm not bringing up food management again!).

[Margaret]

O, okay. In that case from my experience it really depends from individual person.

Michael, the standard opinion is that women is more weak and more likely to spoil any animal, and if bitten by parrot crying and screaming and the men is strong and don't do it. I disagree with that.
It really depends from individual person. From what I see my boyfriend is more likely to spoil our animals including birds.
I don't know if that's the answer you expect, but I really don't like to judge people according to standards: men/women. Not our generation at least.

[Michael]

Well there are two ways of looking at this. You can start with a preconceived notion (whether true or not) such as "women are the weaker sex" and then make an assumption based on that assumption that "therefore women must be more afraid of biting or spoil parrots." I don't think anyone on here is suggesting that although if it's how anyone feels they are welcome to say so because it is an open discussion. However, as more of a behaviorist I prefer to observe (could be watching other owners interact with their birds in person, watching videos online, conversing with people on forum, etc) and then come to conclusions from there.

This topic has nothing to do with perception of gender roles in society and such. I just want to know if you think men/women treat parrots differently in any aspects?

[patdbunny]

If women are "softer" in the way they handle parrots, then I guess I'm an exception. I seem to advocate for a tough, firm stance.

[GlassOnion]

I'm definitely the firmer one of the female species..
My male fiance will flinch more and be *weaker* to any huffing and bluffing posed by Apple.