COLOR: MEN VS. WOMEN

(via The Australian Gemmologist) An interesting perspective on color grading of gemstones.

The problems extend to all people of all ages, all cultures, and to both sexes. Men see color quite differently from women, hence the prevalence of arguments between husbands and their wives about color. Men have more difficulties with color than women, and it has been estimated that while 50% of males have some degree of color-blindness, only 3% of women are affected in the same way. Yet, of the 50% of males without color-blindness, one man in ten will perceive color better than most women and perhaps one in a thousand will perceive color better than any woman on earth.

Of the 97% of women not affected with problems of color perception all can see color surprisingly evenly, and can communicate with other women about color without much difficulty. However, women find it almost impossible to communicate in the same way with their male counterparts. Additionally, no woman ever reaches the degree of color perception enjoyed by the one male in a thousand. It has been suggested that this is probably the reason why there has never been a woman ‘great master painter’ although there are thousands of excellent female artists in the world.

When these factors are extended to people from different countries, cultures, and environments, some conception of the magnitude of the problem can be realized. This probably explains why the problems of color grading colored gemstones have been almost insoluble for so long.

True color-blindness is quite rare. It has been calculated that less than one person in ten thousand is completely colorblind. These unfortunates see the world in shades of black and gray. For all other persons affected with color recognition problem it is more a matter of color recognition rather than color perception. In other words, most color defective individuals see color all right, but they have great difficulty putting a name to it; perhaps this represents some form of color dyslexia.