Men might naturally have more muscle mass and strength than women, but ladies are the ones that live longer — even in times of crisis.
Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark looked at historical data on death rates for both women and men who endured famines — like the Irish potato famine, the Ukraine famine and the Swedish famine — along with disease outbreaks and found that women outlived men almost every time. Sometimes by years.
Female slaves — freed and not — also lived longer than their male counterparts.
“Even though the crises reduced the female survival advantage in life expectancy, women still survived better than men,” the researchers wrote in the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Even in Liberia, the population with the lowest life expectancy, newborn girls were hardier than newborn boys,” they continued. “In all populations, they had lower mortality across almost all ages, and, with the exception of one slave population, they lived longer on average than men.”
Data from the famines studied showed that life expectancies dropped considerably for both sexes, but women still lived longer. For example, life expectancy during the Irish potato famine dropped from 38 years to just 22.4 for women — and 18.7 years for men.
The Ukrainian famine was even worse: Life expectancy dropped from 41.58 years to just 7.3 years for men and to 10.9 years from women, down from 45.93.
The researchers attribute female hardiness to “biological underpinnings” — basically, their female genetics.
“[Their hypothesis] is supported by the fact that under very harsh conditions females survive better than males even at infant ages when behavioral and social differences may be minimal or favor males,” the researchers added.
Girl power is real — and history proves it.
