The archetypes of the masculine and the feminine usually have the following characteristics
All men and women have both a masculine and feminine side. To make a rough estimate one could say
Female = 75% feminine archetype + 25% masculine archetype
Male = 75% masculine archetype + 25% feminine archetype
Of course this varies for person to person and indeed can change over time in the same person. In the life span of the male it is probably the young adult male who has the largest difference between the masculine and feminine. At that stage the masculine is at it highest and the feminine is at its lowest and as he progresses through adulthood the difference lessens. As a consequence their understanding of the feminine view of the world increases as he progresses through adulthood.
But it is safe to say, most men have more masculine (energy) and most women have more feminine (energy).
One advantages of this, is it allows the female to understand the male psyche and the male to understand the female psyche. She can understand where he is coming from because she has a masculine side that can see the world from a masculine perspective and the same applies for the male seeing a women’s perspective because he has a feminine side.
Carl Jung was big on this idea. He said that a husband learns to see the women’s perspective because over time he introjects the wife’s personality into his own. And over time the wife introjects the husband’s psyche into her personality. This introjection allows each party to understand the other at a more profound level. As well as allowing a better understanding of the opposite sex in general.
At times in counselling one hears women say that she just can’t understand men about….. Or a man will say that he just can’t understand his wife when she…
In this theory, that lack of understanding occurs because she is out of touch with her masculine side or he is out of touch with his feminine side. In addition they have not allowed self to be aware of the opposite gender introjections in their own Parent ego state, they have made with emotionally significant others throughout life. Obviously from a therapeutic point of view one provides the client with exercises that allows for an increase in this area of self awareness. An awareness of their masculine or feminine side and an awareness of the opposite gender introjections that have made in their life. When done the person will experience a deeper understanding of why the opposite gender do and think the way they do.