notasheep: I am not contesting that women are generally more expressive of their empathy than men (even though I do contest that idea slightly; see below). I am contesting the idea that empathy is somehow more intrinsic to female nature than it is to general human nature. Your statement above
Sensitivity is part of being a mother – which normal woman can ignore the sound of her child (or any child) in pain, for instance?
to me is the same thing as saying, “All females have toenails–toenails are totally a female thing.” Obviously, it is a little more nuanced than that, as each gender has a different way of expressing their “toenails,” but to say one gender *has* more of it (what exactly does that mean, anyway?), or to make it somehow an intrinsic claim of one gender over another, does not make any sense to me.
To take your example: you say, “Women do have more empathy than men,” but all I see you demonstrate is that women and men have different ways of expressing the empathy that they both possess. I think that females have a way of expressing their empathy that is generally perceived as being “more empathetic” by by both genders; I am not really so sure that you can empirically state that one reaction is “more empathetic.” The female contribution to this phenomenon ostensibly comes from females identifying more with the female reaction, and therefore perceiving it as more empathetic. I do not completely understand why men tend to feel the same way (although I have some conjectures).
I do not really see how your second example is relevant to the discussion of empathy.