Blood and Organs
Of our respondents 31% have given blood. More men than women have
given blood (38% a nd 25%, respectively), whereas women are the greater
recipients of blood.We should be aware of the fact thatmenare allowed to
give blood more often than women for medical reasons – four and three
times a year, respectively. That women receive more blood may be related
to their greater needs as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. However,
more women than men have considered giving blood: 49% a nd 30%,
respectively. Apparently, women’s willingness to give blood is relatively
great but the restrictions to donation reduce participation. Of our respondents
26%have made up an organ codicil, with female respondents
outranking their male counterparts (31% a nd 21%, respectively).
There are some doubts about Titmuss’s view of blood donations as the
“free” and altruistic gift par excellence (Titmuss 1970). For some of our
respondents the main motive to give blood was “having a free afternoon
from military service.” Often a kind of postponed reciprocity is involved.
One respondent says: “It can happen to me too, such an accident. You
may be in need of blood yourself, at some time, and then you are lucky
that there are some other people who have given their blood.” Perhaps
the bearers of an organ codicil are the true altruists.
It is justified, on the basis of these data, to claim that women are the
greater givers compared with men. Even though the monetary value of
the gifts they give is lower compared with that of men’s gifts (women
have less to spend),women give not only more normal gifts but also more
nonmaterial gifts than men do. Women’s liberality is consistent over all
gift objects we distinguished in the research.Moreover, the results of our
study are confirmed by the findings concerning women’s larger share in
gift giving, reported by Caplow and Cheal. However, women appear to
be the greatest recipients as well. The principle of reciprocity is the most
likely explanation for this.Motives to give seem to be mainly a mixture of
altruistic feelings and expectations of return, as discussed in Chapters 1
and 2. And even when gifts are given altruistically, it is assumed that
people end up with some self-reward from their unselfish gift giving, for
example a positive feeling about themselves – a phenomenon that has
been called the altruistic paradox.
Howarewe to explainwomen’s greater liberality comparedwith men’s?
It is unlikely that women are simply blessed with a greater level of altruism
than men are. Gifts may convey symbolic meanings that do not so
much harmonizewith altruism but rather express thoughtlessness, indifference,
criticism, a need for attention, or an attempt to seduce. In fact,
the results of our research showed that gifts of this type are no exceptions.
Altruism and gift giving are often very indirectly related, if at all. As we
will see in Cha pters 6 and 7, motives to offer care or help to other people
are often disinterested as well as selfish. The explanation for women’s liberality
should rather be sought in different sets of expectations regarding
women and men, normative conceptions of what gender roles should
consist of, and in differences in the cultural and social value attributed
to women’s and men’s main domains of activity. All this should then be
considered against the background of factual inequality in women’s and
men’s social positions, which becomes manifest in their differing material
and nonmaterial resources (e.g., participation in paid work, income,
participation in informal networks, occupying leading positions, amount
of free time).
There are good reasons to assume that power inequality between genders
is implied in women’s gift giving, but the question is what this
relationship looks like: who is benefiting most from women’s greater gift
giving? Are women affirming their own status or power position, or even
gaining in power by means of their giving, just like the inhabitants of the
Trobriand Islands? Or are women the net losers of their own gift giving
because it is merely what is expected from them as females and amounts
to the reproduction of their subordinate position in society?