Women and worry

I have been listening to Lawrence Cahoone's history of Western philosophy from the Teaching Company.  There are quite a few thinkers that he discusses that I have never studied.  Some of the early 20th century philosophers were being reviewed when Cahoone mentioned that one of them, Martin Heidegger, considered care and caring fundamental to human existence in his early work.

I carry two references to "care" in my head, one is Robert May's characterization that caring is THE essence of women's experience, while pride is the essence of men's experience.  The other reference is the careful analysis of care and caring done by Nel Noddings in Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education.  But a third source entitled Why Women Worry also came to mind when I heard Cahoone mention caring and anxiety together.

I have had some occasions when working with very intelligent, capable, educated women that puzzled me when they showed signs of high levels of anxiety that I didn't understand.  These times related to some individual that was deeply cared for and the possibility of future harm or pain for the cared-for individual.  I didn't want harm or pain to come to the person either, but at the time, it had not.  Yet, the anxious women seemed to feel certain those nasties were just about to arrive.  There did not seem to be anything that I or the anxious women could do about the possible problems but their level of anxiety seemed to be on an energy level that I would experience if I thought I could avert a serious disaster if I really hurried and allowed nothing to slow me down.

The seeming disconnect between possible future status and our power to affect it gave them no pause that I could detect.  I guess, though, if caring is the natural state for most women and it is easily leads to anxiety, I suppose that explains why women worry.  Not that men don't, but at times, it hasn't seemed the same.