Women have often been labeled as “the weaker sex”. That label has often been used and popularized by men in the media who took it as something normal and who probably view physical strength as the only measure.
So let’s try to check this based on the overall qualities of the sexes.
Health and longevity
Starting from birth despite the long-standing myth that women are the weaker sex, females have a stronger chance at survival than men. If research from the University of Southern Denmark is to be believed, women are performing better at survival and life longevity under any circumstances. Using historic data to analyze death rates for men and women who endured famines, epidemics or were sold into slavery, researchers found that in nearly every case, women outlived male counterparts by years. The study looked at events in history such as the 1933 Ukrainian famine in the Soviet Union, the 1845 Irish potato famine, life expectancy of slaves in Trinidad in 1813; the Swedish famine of 1772-1773, survival rates of freed slaves from the US settling in Liberia between 1820 and 1843 and a deadly measles epidemics in Iceland in 1842 and 1882.In comparing male and female birth and death records they found that females virtually always lived far longer.
Today, newborn males are statistically at a 10 percent greater risk of death than females, even when they receive exactly the same level of care. As adults women are less likely to die from infection or disease. Steven Austad, an international expert on ageing, and chair of the biology department at the University of Alabama, has spent two years studying the well-known fact that women live longer than men. He found that all over the world throughout history, women outlive men by around five to six years. Austad asserts that in 2010, women in the US were less likely to die from 12 of 15 of the main causes of death, including cancer and heart disease. According to scientific research women tend to have stronger immune system which is why their organism is more robust. The only exceptions to this are auto-immune diseases where the immune system attacks the body’s own cells. Recently we can see that women are less likely to die from or have COVID complications. According to The Better Half by American physician Sharon Moalem, having a second X chromosome gives women an immunological advantage. Every cell in a woman’s body has twice the number of X chromosomes as a man’s, and so twice the number of genes that can be called upon to regulate her immune response, he says. Only one of the X chromosomes in each cell will be active at any time, but having that diversity of options gives women a better immunological toolbox to fight infections. Moalem describes the possession of XX chromosomes as “female genetic superiority” In the case of Covid-19, for instance, the virus uses its spike protein as a key to “unlock” a receptor protein on the outside of our human cells, called ACE-2, and gain entry. As the ACE-2 protein is on the X chromosome, men will have identical versions of ACE-2 on all their cells – if the virus can unlock one, it can unlock all, he wrote recently in a Twitter thread. Women, though, have two different ACE-2 genes, because of their two X chromosomes thus making it harder for the virus to unlock different receptor proteins. The patriarchy loves to paint the picture that women are physically inferior to men, but with the science has now shown that it’s the other way around, this is bringing the accepted fact of male strength into some question. Now let’s look at the other facts as well.
Strenght and durability
In terms of brute strength and accomplishments in sports men have exceeded thanks to being bigger overall with bigger muscles, lungs and hearts. However, as per a study published in the journal The Royal Society Publishing, a unit of a fit woman’s muscles can produce the same force as that of a similarly fit man. So, women just have a lower muscle mass, not muscle strength. The study also suggests that pound for pound women may have stronger legs. Another study finds that women are better endurance- athletes than men. Women have more type I (‘slow twitch’ or oxidative) muscle fibers, which may produce less force but are more resistant to fatigue – ideal for ultra-endurance events. That is why the past few years have seen women outperform men at the extremes of endurance. For example in December 2018, Camille Herron claimed the world record among men and women for the fastest 24hr race, covering 162.9 miles. Not only does these incidents now show that women’s bodies are tougher than men’s when fighting illness and the effects of ageing, they’re also more resilient in endurance sports and long distance racing, and overall more robust in basic survival abilities.
In short, women are born better survivors than men.
Education and work performance
Intelligence is another very important quality in humans. For the better half of the 20th century it was accepted than men score a point or two higher than women in terms of IQ. However, as women are gaining equal access to education this was proved to be false. In fact, according to IQ expert James Flynn, women now outscore men on intelligence tests in Europe, the US, Canada, and New Zealand. When it comes to emotional intelligence women have traditionally scored higher than men according to Wikipedia. Emotional intelligence is responsible for the soft skills which are sought after by many job recruiters.
Speaking of equal access to education earlier, I think I do have to acknowledge that, over the past few decades, there has been a rapid increase in higher educational attainment worldwide. Much of that is due to the increase in women's educational attainment. Over time, women caught up with men's education levels and progressively attained higher levels of schooling than men. Today, in the western world almost two women earn a college degree for every man. This may be due to the fact that women have better memory and that allows remembering and learning new information to be easier.
Going from school to the office, according to Hive, women work 10 percent harder than men in today's offices. This conclusion is the product of two other statistics. First, both men and women actually complete about 66 percent of their assigned work. However, women are assigned 10 percent more work than men, thus making them more productive.
Not only are women more productive but they seem to be better prepared for the modern world. As technology advances and keeps developing it continues to drive the demand for soft skills by automating technical skills. Combining having greater soft skills, with better education this will certainly mean a better job opportunities in the future. Actually, women are already joining the workforce at a faster rate than men. From 2015 to 2018, there's been a 0.8% growth in men entering the workforce compared to 2.2% for women. October 2022 finall saw the Council of EU approving a directive for gender balance on company boards. The directive, which will have to be transposed into national law, lays down that at least 40% of non-executive director positions in listed companies should be held by members of the underrepresented sex by 2026. If member states choose to apply the new rules to both executive and non-executive directors, the target would be 33% of all director positions by 2026. Now, with their educational advantage, laws finally being passed, companies taking accountability, with better soft skills, women are well positioned to lead in the future.
Conclusion
These days there are more sophisticated ways to measure strength than an old-fashioned arm wrestle.
Women are stronger than men in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future. The female form was honed over millions of years to survive. We may have been seen as the weaker sex for a long time, but its time to ditch that label and celebrate our inner Amazon. Current trends may shout that ‘strong being the skinny’ for women, but as it turns out, we were the strong ones along all.
If Women aren’t the stronger sex of today, they are certainly the stronger sex of tomorrow.