Women Are Actually Tougher Than Men. Science Confirmed It

Aug 14, 2018

Famine. Epidemic. Poverty. No matter what you throw at the human race, women are better at surviving it.

A study published in PNAS under the title "Women live longer than men even during severe famines and epidemics" has come out of Duke University. It uses rather colorful language, describing women as life expectancy champions. It concludes this because, on average, women live longer than men, even under the worst of circumstances.

The study looked at hospital records of seven groups of people covering a period of 250 years. Even during the worst hardships, where life expectancy was below 20 years of age, girls still had a better survival track record than boys.

This was true of slave populations from the early 1800s in both the US and Trinidad. It was true during famines in Ireland, Sweden and the Ukraine during the 1700s, 1800s and 1900s. It was true during measles epidemics that hit Iceland in both 1846 and 1882.

• During the 1993 Ukraine famine, boys lived just 7.3 years. Girls lived 10.85.
• Only one out of every forty people over age 110 is male. The rest are female.
• Globally, female life expectancy is 72 years and eight months. Male life expectancy is 68 years and four months.
• In the UK, women live 82.9 years on average. Men only live to 79.2 years on average. 

Do we know why? Not really. What we do know is that biology and social factors both play a role.

Some of the biological factors include:
 

• Genetics: XX versus XY chromosomes
• Hormones: Men have more testosterone. Women have more estrogen. 

The XX gene combination has built in resilience. It is redundant in a way that helps the body make up for weak areas. If you didn't get what you needed from one X chromosome, the other might have it. In contrast, the XY combination is relative fragile. It has no such redundancy. 

Testosterone is known to not only promote conditions like heart disease, it also promotes reckless behavior and general aggression. In contrast, estrogen is known to protect against disease. The fact that women give birth is a large part of why they have a much more complicated immune system than men. They need to kill foreign bodies like disease without killing foreign bodies like their baby.

Social factors include: 
 

• Women spend less time doing paid work, more time in the home.
• Women do most of the cooking and will generally be more knowledgeable about nutrition.
• Women do most of the care-taking for themselves and other people, making them knowledgeable about how to deal with small problems before they grow larger.  

However, the most surprising detail from the study was not the overwhelming favor for female survival across the board, but was the role that infant mortality rates played in skewed the statistical results. Baby girls out-survived baby boys and this had major ramifications. 

In a nutshell, women are practically superhuman. Who needs aliens from Krypton?

Are you feeling the girl power? Do you know any women who could use some feel good news in their day? Forward this to them now!