why do women tend to live longer than men? my dad says it's because they have easier lives. what do you think?

Answer 1

Well I dont agree with that! A womens life is far harder than a mans!! Id imagine, women look after themselves more than men..

Answer 2

The statistics are skewed for a variety of reasons. For instance, how many women are killed in wars? Look at the big ones - we're talking about hundreds of thousands of males dying by the age of 25. Of course that is going to skew statistics. There are other similar examples (dangerous jobs, risky adolescence, etc.) that were already stated by other answerers.

Another thing that probably causes it is workrelated stress. I am not saying women do not have stress, but the traditional homemaker typically did not face the same amount as the traditional working male. Now that more women are working, this is less of a factor.

In the past few years, the gap has been narrowing, and I think that with similar lifestyles (exercising, eating healthy, etc.), men and women would have essentially the same life expectancy.

Answer 3

Isn't a lifespan determined by the amount of beats a heart can do in a lifetime - perhaps because it used to be predominantly males in the manual labour sections of work their hearts beated faster as a rule? Im purely guessing.

Quotes from wiki:
"Significant differences still remain in life expectancy between men and women in France and other developed countries, with women outliving men by five years or more. These gender differences have been lessening in recent years, with men's life expectancy improving at a faster rate than women's.
Life expectancy may also be reduced for people exposed to high levels of highway air pollution[citation needed] or industrial air pollution. Occupation may also have a major effect on life expectancy. Well-educated professionals working in offices have a high life expectancy, while coal miners (and in prior generations, asbestos cutters) do not. Other factors affecting an individual's life expectancy are genetic disorders, obesity, access to health care, diet, exercise, tobacco smoking, and excessive drug and alcohol use."

Answer 4

The reason that women, on average, live longer than men is not primarily due to stress levels, frequency of doctor visits, or minute things of that nature. Rather there are a number of small factors to take into account.

However, the biggest difference is due to the roles of women in society. Traditionally women where expected to work at home raising the kids while men went off and worked the dangerous jobs like construction, factory work, and military service. It was the fatalities of the men working these dangerous jobs that created the difference.

If you look at studies done comparing life averages (for the sake of arguement, lets say one per decade over the past four decades), you will see that the age gap of men and women dying is actually shrinking due to two primary sources; 1). more women enter dangerous professions traditionally reserved for men such as the military and factories and 2). Creation and improvement of job safety standards for said dangerous jobs.

Answer 5

It has to do with estrogen which protects the heart and also protects individual cells.

Incidentally, the gap of women living longer is closing due to more women eating unhealthy diets and moving into higher positions in the work force.

Estrogen can protect the body to an extent but if the body itself isn't being taken care of then it will break down quicker.

The "easy life" thing isn't logical. Everyone - regardless of their sex - has a degree of stress in their lives and if you think that it is easy being a woman then spend a day with one and really watch. Don't project what you believe to be true onto her, just watch the reality.

Women tend to be the ones who "hold the family together" - especially during your father's time (shame on him for being ignorant and spreading his nonsense) - and that is an extremely stressful job.

Up until recently, women were more apt to take care of their bodies better than men but that gap is also closing as more men educate themselves on what is a good diet and how to look after their own bodies instead of having a woman 'look after them'.

If your father thinks that his wife or your mother (whichever) has is easy then he is disrespecting her in a spectacular manner and taking advantage of her.

If she has put up with these kind of comments then she has GOT to be strong, eh?

Answer 6

Women who choose high powered jobs have a similar life expectancy to men which suggests that it is down to stress.

Hard work itself seems to have little effect on longevity, but high stress jobs seem to shorten life.

When you think of the amount of work women did prior to contraception and all the labour saving devices that are commonplace now.

100 years ago running a house especially if there were several children was genuinely a full time job. Food to be bought daily, no car to go to a supermarket then. Washing cleaning etc. yet women still lived longer.

As more women take stressful jobs the gap will narrow more.

Answer 7

we take better care of ourselves. men usually have to be forced to go to a doctor for checkups. they do not get enough sleep.. eat too much.and drink tooo much. however.. married men live longer than single men..because they have a woman to keep them on track. easier my foot. how many men.. juggle a house..family and a job,... and most women are taking care of household budget.. etc. a woman has always been the back bone.. of family. way before the wagon train days.

Answer 8

Because many men work or do military for them("society", all).
The turn came when Death during childbirth passed to History,giving that 28% of women who would have leveled the Mortality rate 'in Nature' equal to men's,an extended lifespan.
Women used to risk -at a human normal fertility rate-more than today,almost every other year.

Answer 9

Women are physically more resiliant than men - they tend to do better in survival situations etc.

Their hormones also offer greater cardiac protection - at least until the menopause.

Women are designed to bear children which means that they're stronger.

Women have harder lives because they're expected to work, run the home, look after the children and tolerate living with selfish pigs who call themselves 'men'.

Paid employment isn't the only type of 'work' out there.

I get more rest when I do go to work compared to the amount of stuff (not to mention the stress) that I do at home.

Answer 10

Possibly very true, however ~ I suspect that natures plan was so that they could could continue breeding and nurturing.

Although women could and did die (seemingly) remarkably easy within the act of giving birth, the activities of a man (and therefore dangers he faced) were much broader, giving the surviving woman the opportunity to breed with other men.

Or something like that.

Sash.

Answer 11

While it may be true that some women have easier lives that is really a stereotype. For generatios women lived longer because society forbade them from participating in activities that might hurt them- things such as alcohol consumption, drugs of course some prescrips maybe, cigarettes, second-hand smoke still might have killed some, but physical activities such as swimming - how much actual swimming did women do in those dresses they wore only 80 years ago.


By the way its almost even now - men and women live almost the same number of years . Because of course we are allowed to have vices now.