For some years now, equality between the sexes – or “genders” as we now often say – has been such a strongly held orthodoxy that few dare to challenge it. I am all for equality before the law for everyone, but I don’t believe “equality” should obscure the fact that there are fundamental differences between males and females. It’s been the fashion to claim that these differences are merely “social” – created by human society – and not rooted in nature or biology. That is, little girls are conditioned to play with dolls, while little boys are encouraged to play with train sets. But the coronavirus has changed everything, including many of our perceptions, and the pesky pandemic seems to regard male and female victims differently. Men are much more vulnerable to the illness than women – and more than twice as likely to die from it. The findings are the same in a whole range of societies – Italy, China, New York. Some say this has a “social” explanation – men take more risks, smoke more – but the medical boffins are veering towards a biological explanation: the difference between male and female, from the virus’s viewpoint, lies in biology. The clue may be in the distinction between male and female hormones. But if females are less likely to be infected by the virus (and more likely to recover from it), women are reported to be more psychologically affected by the consequent isolation. In a study carried out by Grazia magazine with Instagram, three-quarters of women said they were suffering from more anxiety, depression and loneliness during the lockdown – and surprisingly these were in the normally healthy age group of 25-54. Meanwhile, the Institute of Fiscal Studies reported that mothers have taken on considerably more childcare, domestic chores and educational responsibilities than fathers. Nature or nurture? Is it because women feel a stronger instinctive urge to organise home life, or because they’ve been “conditioned” to do so? Social circumstances always play a role in our lives, but the Old Testament’s view that male and female were created to be different still emerges from time to time, and the coronavirus certainly has shown the difference of impact on males and females.