Weaker Sex? No Way!

Are you sitting down, guys? Turns out women are tougher, smarter and more resilient than men

- Jane Vorster

IT’S going to be a bitter pill for many guys to swallow. For centuries they’ve been told they’re the superior sex but now it turns out science might have got it all wrong. After examining all the latest research a groundbreaking new book concludes that it’s women, in fact, who have the upper hand. Even though men have twice the upper-body strength and greater muscle mass, studies show that women are tougher, luckier, smarter and more resilient.

“We often think of males as being the more powerful sex,” explains Angela Saini, author of Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong And The New Research That’s Rewriting The Story.

“But strength can be defined in different ways. When it comes to the most basic instinct of all – survival – women’s bodies tend to be better equipped than men’s.”

From intelligence and emotional stability to managing illness, here’s why scientists now reckon that men are the weaker sex.

BRAINS VS BRAWN

It was once assumed men had more brain power than women but in recent decades women have outsmarted men in IQ tests. New Zealand psychologist James Flynn, one of the world’s leading intelligence experts, tested 1 000 men and women from a selection of countries, including South Africa, and found that overall women scored half to a whole point higher.

Given this, it’s probably no coincidence that the highest IQ ever recorded was a woman’s – in the ’80s American author Marilyn vos Savant (now 70), scored 228, which put her streets ahead of genius Albert Einstein, who’s thought to have ranked somewhere between 160 and 190.