Doing something "like a girl" has traditionally been an insult - but science says there's plenty of stuff that girls are just plain better at.
Reddit user DueVegetable4583 asked:
"What are things that women do better than men?"
Normally these "girl-power" lists will be full of things like "women are better nurturers" etc.
That might be true, but that's not the list Reddit set out to make. I promise this list doesn't look like what you'd expect.
For example, we're starting off in outer space!
Space Is For Girls
Outer Space Happy Dance GIF by NASAGiphy"Enduring the ravages of long term space flight."
"Women lose muscle mass slower than men. There are video examples of female astronauts walking after re-entry when their male crew members have to be carried due to muscle atrophy."
- GenaArmagost
"I always found it interesting that women tend to have more endurance than immediate strength. More women tend to survive in famines then men, probably because the body needs to be able to keep in fat for reproduction and insulation."
- Minimum-Cauliflower2
"Women also use fewer calories on average, making them the more efficient option for long-distance space travel."
- velawesomeraptors
"I’m a researcher working on the effects of galactic cosmic radiation on the brain."
"At least in mice it is typically seen that this type of radiation has a lower detrimental effect in female mice than male mice on cognitive function. It is believed that estrogen could play a neuroprotective role but more studies are needed to confirm."
"So there’s another aspect of long term (and deep) space flight."
- DeArgonaut
"I read a study on the effects of estrogen on muscle mass in women recently."
"Estrogen is linked to muscle recovery and that might contribute to female astronauts being able to hold on to muscle mass better in space."
"This is not my field of study though, so I’m happy to be corrected if someone has more info. I just found the article when I was looking for women’s fitness information."
- growerofpalms
Better In Every Possible Way
"Former gymnastics coach here."
"Before puberty, girls in competitive gymnastics are almost universally better in every possible way except confidence, including strength."
"I should clarify:"
"My girl gymnasts are stronger, in that they have generally been able to do more pull-ups (and with better form) than my boy gymnasts; whether that tendency maps to the population in general would be a separate question entirely."
"But where the difference seems much more dramatic is in skills that combine strength with precise control. Most girls I've coached are probably slightly better than most boys I've coached at things like push-ups and pull-ups."
"But where the girls really leave the boys in the dust is more complex strength skills, such as press handstands, muscle-ups, mannas, pullovers, etc."
"The girls have more precise body control, better discipline, are stronger, etc. If gymnastics competition were coed, I guarantee 90% of state and national champions in the under-12 age brackets would be girls."
"With the onset of puberty this shifts quite a bit, but even at the highest levels, female gymnasts tend to have much better form."
"Also, women are far stronger in Yurchenko-style vaults generally, even up through older age brackets and higher levels."
- GeoffreyTaucer
Bloody Hell
"Dealing with blood coming out of your genitals."
"I've seen blood come out of my penis a few times recently after both rigid and flexible cystoscopies and a nephrectomy."
"Women deal with this hell often. Amazing."
- reverendgrebo
"Had a thing once where I peed blood. Can confirm the ladies handle it better."
"That being said, the contrast of blood-red on a shiny white porcelain urinal is kind of cool looking after the shock wears off..."
- squirtloaf
The Safer Sex
Shooting Marc Rodriguez GIFGiphy"Girls outshoot the boys, easy."
"I've seen this with shooting sports as well including small bore rifle and archery."
"Girls tend to have better concentration, better fine muscle control, listen better and take instruction better than similarly aged boys."
"They also generally take it more seriously and are safer."
- gearmantx
"Yeah I taught archery for a little while at a boys & girls club."
"The boys were generally more pumped about it, but the girls almost always picked up on it quicker and outperformed them."
"Not to undermine the boys though, I had several of them that were pretty talented in their own right, and they tended to stick with it longer than the girls."
- frightenedhugger
"Yep."
"I always fired expert at the range (39 out of 40). None of the guys at the unit could beat me."
"I remember walking off the range once and our XO was reading the results to us when suddenly his tone changed and said, 'and the princess scored 39!' ”
"Told y’all I had better aim than you. LOL"
- SollSister
"I had never shot a gun in my life until a couple of years ago, and I outshot both the owner of the gun, and his dad."
- strapinmotherf**ker
"I went to the rifle range with a girl I was dating who had never held a gun before. I'd been a few times, total novice, but had a modicum of experience."
"She was much, much better than I was."
"Tried again on the trap."
"She was even better with a shotgun."
"It was a scenario the instructor said he'd seen dozens of times, and he had been in the job less than two years."
- KenEarlysHonda50
The Girls Are All Ears
"Women tend to have better hearing than men and are less likely to experience hearing loss with age."
"Also, when women do experience hearing loss they tend to navigate it better: disclosing the problem and offering workarounds."
- doublestitch
"After suddenly going mostly deaf in my left ear I have heard this as well."
"I had to get a great deal of testing done, one was obviously a hearing test to determine the level of degradation. In my left ear the doctor said I was roughly a 70 year old man however in my right ear I was labelled a 13 year old girl. To which I laughed and asked what the hell that was supposed to mean."
"He quoted numerous studies concluding women are born with superior hearing abilities."
"The studies even had controls for occupation-associated hearing loss since men are more likely to work in industrial settings with consistent loud noises, which can degrade hearing over time."
"Women are just better."
- ryleyjunk
Bathroom Solidarity
"Women are better at stranger restroom support."
"We can ask a total stranger for toilet paper, hold broken doors shut for each other, and provide period supplies to other women."
"Toddlers peering under stall doors don’t freak most of us out."
"And if a woman starts to walk out with toilet paper stuck to her shoe, there will be a half dozen women trying to step on that trailing toilet paper to save that woman for embarrassment."
"One of my favorite stories relating to this is back in the 80s when a young woman walked out of an airport bathroom with the back of her skirt and slip stuck up in her pantyhose."
"I swear, a dozen random women of all ages converged on her, surrounding her so nobody could see, and a grandmotherly type said 'Honey, y’all got to pull your skirt down in the back.' ”
"Seriously, women have bathroom solidarity."
- Gen-Jinjur
I Am No Man
Lord Of The Rings I Am No Man GIF by AIDESGiphy"Slay the Witch King."
- Oldforestwalker
"Fun Fact: MacBeth is actually why Eowyn is the one to kill the Witch King!"
"Tolkien read MacBeth and was apparently disappointed that it was a c-section loophole."
"The prophecy of Great Birnam Wood marching on Macbeth’s castle is what inspired the march of the ents to Isengard."
- gentlybeepingheart
Science Says
"From observation working in mental health- which is also backed by research- their lower testosterone makes them as a group: less impulsive, better attention, and less violent."
"In other words, more rational."
"In my work, this is why they are more likely to attempt suicide via poisoning, but less likely to complete it - they're less likely to use a gun."
"And why they're better able to resist or trying drugs because they are lower in novelty seeking and becoming addicted."
"Also- and this one is kinda my fave- they are better at having an 'average' IQ.”
"Women are clustered in the middle of the bell curve but, men are over represented at very low and very high end."
"This is my favorite because whenever I see this stat referenced, it is always by a sexist or misogynist who tries to use it as proof of men being 'smarter.' "
"Yet they, of course, ignore that it also means men are 'stupider.' That's data misrepresentation and happens a lot in these circles."
"Science: It’s not for everyone!"
- PMmeJOY
Welding Wonders
"In a lot of cases women are better at welding."
"They have really good attention to detail, so much so that they look at the little tiny details of welds and metals where a man would just say 'f**k it.' "
- Quinnjamin19
"I had a friend that was a welder and pretty damn good at it, too. But she had to quit."
"The field is so heavily male dominated that when she first started working, there was no women's bathroom at her job. She would go to a nearby coffee shop and use their bathroom during her break."
"She was the only female welder at her location and got harassed daily at work. The last straw was when she found out that the male welders had a betting pool on who was gonna have sex with her first."
- idontknodudebutikno
"Female welder here."
"I finished a month earlier than my class of all men without proper fitting gloves/equipment."
"They have that now and there seems to be a lot more women in trades school for welding but it wasn’t like that at the time."
"I quit doing it after 7 years to be a general contractor after getting constant harassment at every job."
- borntolose42069
"Yes, I was told this by the workshop techs at school."
"He reckoned women have the patience more to go slower and get it done properly, rather than rushing and having holes in the weld."
- ColonelRainbow
"Im a girl and my welding instructor has always said this to me"
- Nyxie_Koi
"You guys should see the girl in my welding class!"
"Holy sh*t the girl can run the most beautiful roots with 6010. Haven’t seen anything she can’t do, yet."
"My instructor that’s a third generation machinist and worked on literal spaceships says he hasn’t seen her kind of talent in a couple decades. I don’t know what I’m talking about, but he freakin' does."
- Awkward-Review-Er
A Second Job
Music Video Work GIF by RihannaGiphy"They have been better at taking on more skills and responsibilities, thus doing more generally speaking as a result of The social movements and changes that Started around the 60s."
"It's like women generally were able to successfully move in to more formerly male realms of education and work, while still largely having to perform the traditional female roles as well. It's like they got a second job."
"Can we say the same of men? Did they have to perform in more arenas as a result of those changes? Did they expand themselves in more ways?"
- Lissez
Survival
"Self-preservation instinct."
"You don't scoff twice when hearing about some of your male pals about to go and drop molotovs in an abandoned mineshaft, but you'd never expect women to do it."
- GooseVast
"Women seem to be better at not offing themselves in really inane ways."
"When you hear the proverbial 'Hold my beer!' moment, you always imagine a man. Women seem better at wanting to survive."
- [Reddit]
Let Ladies Lead
"They are better national leaders."
"There are fewer wars, improved standard of living indicators, better economic performance, etc. when you look across the the global averages."
"Of course this is just an average, and there are women who do not perform as well as some men, but if we are generalizing, women are better leaders. I believe both Obama and Bush have a quote about those."
"I've also found that in a work setting, they are better managers and have higher employee satisfaction and performance."
"Again generally, I've had a bad female manager before myself. But my best 3 were all ladies. Maybe some HR pro can weigh in here on this."
"I think if we are serious about wanting to make the world a better place, we (especially men) should be pushing to put women into the highest levels of leadership in the biggest industries/companies and nations."
- Blackman2099
Apt Pupils
harry potter GIFGiphy"I've been a math teacher for 15 years."
"Girls homework is, without a doubt, a lot lot looooooot better than the boys' homework."
"Girls are more organized, their solutions are more thoroughly explained, and they're just neater."
- BangkokGarrett
The Pain
"Pain tolerance."
"Put one of those labor simulators on a man and a woman at the same time and watch the woman not even flinch while the man is on the floor writhing at setting 4."
"Seriously, go on YouTube and find the videos. Enjoy the laugh."
- [Reddit]
Feminine Finery
"Fine motor skills and hand work."
"I worked in a factory for a summer when I was in school and when it comes to assembling items on an assembly line women and men are not even in the same league."
- [Reddit]
"Women/girls apparently have better control over small hand movements."
"A teacher of mine mentioned this to us in middle school and proved this to us after he pointed out that our class was evidence. Even something as simple as writing on a black board during our "spelling-race" - a girl would win 9/10 times (consistently)."
- StevenArviv
"Women have better attention to detail and finer skill during menial tasks - hence have always been better factory workers with fewer injuries."
- Mantzy81
Support
"Supporting chronically ill spouses."
"If I’m remembering right, the divorce rate is something like 6x higher if the chronically ill spouse is a woman than it is if the ill spouse is a man."
"Women are just better at shouldering that extra work"
"Literally look at John Edwards, dude cheated on his wife while she was fighting cancer."
- Mixedslt4accents
Experience From Both Sides
"Women can process emotions with more range and a cooler head."
"Testosterone makes your muscles stronger/more efficient, but it messes with your emotional state. Source: a trans woman who has had experience being on the hormones of both."
"When I was on testosterone, I could feel blinding rage (and only rage) at almost anything and my emotional responses felt out of my control."
"To prevent an outburst, I had to stop the activity at the earliest sign of frustration, because if I let it mature, I’d end up throwing a controller, punching a wall, etc. even if I didn’t want to."
"On estrogen, I can take the time to process my emotions rather than acting abruptly. I can feel them when they come and choose what I want to do with them."
"I can feel more emotions - meaning I can feel sadness or disappointment at an event rather than just anger."
"I can take a breath and say 'hey, I’m not enjoying this right now, I need to take a break.' Or if someone cuts me off in traffic, I can sigh, and move on, rather than responding with a temper tantrum."
"On the flip side, I’m also physically weaker now - by a significant margin - than I was before the estrogen. That's true even though I’m more active now than I used to be."
- _Internet_Random_
Now that you've read what Reddit has to say about wonder women - it's your turn to cheer on the ladies.
What do YOU think women tend to do better than men? Tell us in the comments.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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