Science desk
< October 16	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 17

Male and female body strength

Is it true that only about 1 out of every 1,000 women are as strong as the average man is? Futurist110 (talk) 08:21, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Before we even try to discuss this, do you have a source for that claim? It clearly requires some tighter definition. HiLo48 (talk) 09:30, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The user "A New Radical Centrism" on Twitter in one of his Tweets. Futurist110 (talk) 19:48, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Per HiLo, please provide the source for your claim. Otherwise, your claim can be dismissed out-of-hand with no need to address it. --Jayron 32 09:59, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't the reference desk a place to ask for supporting evidence? Alansplodge (talk) 13:09, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That's clearly nonsense. Think about it. I reckon I am of average strength and I know plenty of women stronger than me. Did you know Wikipedia has an article on Sex_differences_in_human_physiology.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 11:45, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

"A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that men had an average of 26 lbs. (12 kilograms) more skeletal muscle mass than women. Women also exhibited about 40 percent less upper-body strength and 33 percent less lower-body strength, on average, the study found". From Livescience - Women in Combat: Physical Differences May Mean Uphill Battle referencing Journal of Applied Physiology - Skeletal muscle mass and distribution in 468 men and women aged 18–88 yr. The Livescience article says that in armies where women are able to fulfill frontline infantry roles with a training regime comparable to the US Marines, they represent around 10% of the total strength, which might be a truer figure than the 0.1% quoted by Futurist above. Alansplodge (talk) 13:09, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This study [1] says "Results indicate that untrained men have greater upper and lower body strength than trained women athletes in terms of both absolute and relative strength." There's a graph in another study [2]. In punch power the men won every time [3]. 92.31.142.178 (talk) 14:07, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Testosterone levels are lower in women. If this is corrected for the difference vanishes. Count Iblis (talk) 19:50, 17 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Going off at a tangent, Count Iblis, but that video is both informative and moving. Should we add the link to the relevant Article? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.178.0 (talk) 12:16, 18 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at some data on grip strength it seem that the difference between the sexes is large. Taking a couple of (middle) age ranges individually, the average male grip exceeds that of the female by around 3.5 standard deviations of the female grip. If female grip strength is normally distributed, very few females indeed would have a grip as strong as an average male of the same age. catslash (talk) 15:37, 18 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A couple of other observations on this data: (1) for the youngest children, the females were the stronger, (2) the standard deviations for the males are relatively large - perhaps a small proportion of particularly strong males are boosting the male average. catslash (talk) 15:46, 18 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting information! Futurist110 (talk) 02:44, 19 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]