The main biological differences between men and women come from their sex chromosomes and sex hormones. Most men have one X and one Y chromosome (XY). Most women have two X chromosomes (XX). These genes and hormones cause differences in reproduction, body size and shape, strength, and the risk of some diseases. For most traits, the averages are different, but individual men and women overlap a lot. Other differences, for example in education, work, and pay, are strongly affected by culture, economics, and law. They change over time and from one country to another.

Comparison chart

Man versus Woman comparison chart
ManWoman
Definition An adult male human. An adult female human.
Sex chromosomes Usually XY. Variations exist, for example XXY (Klinefelter syndrome). Usually XX. Variations exist, for example a single X chromosome (Turner syndrome).
Main sex hormones Testosterone and other androgens. Men also make small amounts of estrogen. Estrogen and progesterone. Women also make small amounts of testosterone.
Reproductive organs Testes, penis, and prostate. The testes make sperm and testosterone. Ovaries, uterus, and vagina. The ovaries release eggs and make estrogen and progesterone.
Fertility Makes sperm from puberty into old age. Sperm quality decreases with age. Born with all her eggs. Fertility decreases from the mid-30s and stops at menopause, usually between ages 45 and 55. Most women can become pregnant and breastfeed.
Age at start of puberty Usually 9 to 14 years (average about 12). Usually 8 to 13 years (average about 11).
Sex ratio at birth About 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. About 100 girls are born for every 105 boys.
Life expectancy About 5 years shorter than for women, worldwide. Death rates are higher at almost every age. Causes are biological (newborn boys are more vulnerable to disease) and behavioral (more smoking, drinking, accidents, and violence). About 5 years longer than for men, worldwide. Women live longer than men in every country. But women spend more years of their life in poor health.
Average height About 171 cm (5 ft 7 in) worldwide, for adults born in 1996. This is about 12 cm (5 in) taller than the average woman. About 159 cm (5 ft 3 in) worldwide, for adults born in 1996.
Muscle and strength More muscle mass, especially in the upper body. On average, much higher strength in tasks such as weight lifting. On average, about 50–60% of men's upper-body strength and 60–70% of men's lower-body strength. In some tasks, women's muscles resist fatigue better than men's.
Body fat Usually lower. Essential fat is about 2–5% of body weight. Usually higher. Essential fat is about 10–13% of body weight, partly to support reproduction.
Skeleton and body shape Larger and heavier bones. Broader shoulders and a narrower pelvis. A larger larynx (Adam's apple). Smaller and lighter bones. A wider pelvis, adapted for childbirth. Breasts develop at puberty.
Facial and body hair Facial and body hair grow at puberty because of testosterone. Male-pattern hair loss affects 30–50% of men by age 50. Little facial and body hair. Female-pattern hair loss is less common and usually causes thinning, not baldness.
Typical voice pitch About 85–155 Hz. About 165–255 Hz.
Heart disease Starts about 7 years earlier than in women. Starts later than in men. Heart attack symptoms can be different from men's and are sometimes missed.
Mental health The suicide rate is about 2.3 times the rate for women. Higher rates of alcohol and drug use disorders. Autism is diagnosed about 3.4 times as often in boys as in girls. Depression is about 1.5 times as common as in men. Anxiety disorders are also more common.
Autoimmune diseases About 7% of men have an autoimmune disease. About 13% of women have an autoimmune disease, almost twice the rate for men.
X-linked genetic conditions More common, because men have only one X chromosome. About 1 in 12 men have red-green color blindness. Hemophilia affects almost only males. Less common, because a second X chromosome usually compensates. About 1 in 200 women have red-green color blindness.
Cancer Prostate and testicular cancer affect only men. Men can get breast cancer, but it is rare (less than 1% of cases). Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in most countries. Cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers affect only women.
Other health risks Higher death rates from injury and violence. Men are less likely to see a doctor. About 1 in 5 men over 50 will have a fracture caused by osteoporosis. About 1 in 3 women over 50 will have a fracture caused by osteoporosis. Migraine is about 3 times as common as in men. Pregnancy and childbirth have their own risks.
Cognitive abilities Average differences are small, and most scores overlap. On average, men do better on some spatial tasks, such as mental rotation. In PISA 2022, boys scored 9 points higher than girls in math (OECD average). Average differences are small, and most scores overlap. On average, women do better in verbal fluency and in remembering words and events. In PISA 2022, girls scored 24 points higher than boys in reading (OECD average).
Education In every OECD country, young men are less likely than young women to have a university degree (41% vs. 54% of 25–34 year-olds in 2022). Boys are more likely to repeat a school year and to leave school early. In every OECD country, young women are more likely than young men to have a university degree (54% vs. 41% of 25–34 year-olds in 2022). Women are still a minority of graduates in engineering and computing.
Traditional roles In most foraging and farming societies, men did most of the hunting, heavy farm work, herding, and fighting. In most foraging and farming societies, women did more of the gathering, child care, and food preparation. Women also hunted in some foraging societies, but how often is debated.
Occupations Men work in all occupations. They are the majority in construction, mining, engineering, skilled trades, and the armed forces. Women work in all occupations. They are the majority in nursing, primary school teaching, and care work.
Labor force participation About 72% of men worldwide (2023). About 47% of women worldwide (2023).
Unpaid care and domestic work Men do about 24% of all unpaid care and domestic work worldwide. Women do about 76% of all unpaid care and domestic work worldwide, more than 3 times as much as men.
Pay On average, men are paid more than women. The global gender pay gap is about 20%. On average, women are paid about 20% less than men worldwide. The gap is different in each country.

Biological differences

Chromosomes and hormones

Biological sex is set at conception by the sex chromosomes. In an embryo with a Y chromosome, the SRY gene causes testes to develop. The testes then make testosterone, which causes the body to develop as male. Without a Y chromosome, ovaries develop, and the body develops as female.

Some people have variations in their sex chromosomes. Klinefelter syndrome (XXY) occurs in about 1 in 650 newborn males. Turner syndrome (a single X chromosome) occurs in about 1 in 2,000 newborn females.

Men and women make the same sex hormones, but in different amounts. In men, testosterone and other androgens are the main sex hormones. In women, estrogen and progesterone are the main sex hormones.

Reproduction and fertility

A man's testes make sperm continuously from puberty into old age, although sperm quality decreases with age. A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have. Usually, her ovaries release one egg in each menstrual cycle. Female fertility decreases from the mid-30s and stops at menopause, which usually happens between ages 45 and 55. Only women can become pregnant and breastfeed.

Sex ratio

About 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. Males have higher death rates at almost every age, so this difference becomes smaller over life. In old age, women outnumber men.

Puberty

Puberty usually starts between ages 8 and 13 in girls and between ages 9 and 14 in boys. In boys, the testes grow, the voice deepens, and facial and body hair grow. Muscle mass also increases. In girls, the breasts develop, the hips widen, and menstruation starts.

Physical differences

Height

Worldwide, the average height of adults born in 1996 was about 171 cm (5 ft 7 in) for men and about 159 cm (5 ft 3 in) for women, a difference of about 12 cm (5 in). Average height is very different from country to country. Many women are taller than many men.

Muscle and strength

On average, men have more muscle mass, especially in the upper body, and larger muscle fibers. In one study, women were about 52% as strong as men in the upper body and about 66% as strong in the lower body. Other studies show similar differences. But in some tasks, especially sustained contractions of the arm muscles, women's muscles resist fatigue better than men's. One reason is that women's muscles have a larger proportion of fatigue-resistant fibers.

Body fat

Women usually have a higher percentage of body fat than men. The minimum healthy amount of fat ("essential fat") is about 10–13% of body weight for women and about 2–5% for men. This extra fat partly supports reproduction.

Skeleton and body shape

Men usually have larger and heavier bones and broader shoulders. Women usually have a wider pelvis, which is adapted for childbirth. Men also have a larger larynx (the "Adam's apple"). For this reason, men's voices are deeper. The typical speaking pitch is about 85–155 Hz for men and about 165–255 Hz for women.

Hair

Testosterone causes facial and body hair to grow in men at puberty. Testosterone also causes male-pattern hair loss in men who inherit a tendency for it. This type of hair loss affects about 30–50% of men by age 50. Women can also have pattern hair loss. Usually it causes the hair to become thinner, not baldness.

Life expectancy

Women live longer than men in every country. Worldwide, the difference is about 5 years. The causes are both biological and behavioral:

But a longer life does not always mean a healthier life. Women spend more years in poor health than men. In 2023, women lived an average of 12.1 years in poor health, compared with 9.3 years for men.

Health

Heart disease

Heart disease starts earlier in men. In a large U.S. study, men reached a 5% rate of cardiovascular disease about 7 years earlier than women (at age 50.5 vs. 57.5). Heart disease is still a leading cause of death for women. Women more often have heart attack symptoms other than chest pain, for example shortness of breath, nausea, or pain in the back or jaw. These symptoms are sometimes missed.

Mental health

Depression is about 1.5 times as common in women as in men. But men die by suicide more often. In 2019, the global suicide rate was 12.6 per 100,000 for men and 5.4 per 100,000 for women. In the United States, autism is diagnosed about 3.4 times as often in boys as in girls.

Autoimmune diseases

A study of 22 million people in the UK found that about 13% of women and 7% of men have at least one autoimmune disease. Examples are rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis.

X-linked conditions

Some genetic conditions are caused by genes on the X chromosome. Men have only one X chromosome, so a single faulty gene causes the condition. Women have two X chromosomes, so a normal gene on the second X chromosome usually compensates. For this reason, red-green color blindness affects about 1 in 12 men but only about 1 in 200 women. Hemophilia also affects almost only males.

Cancer

Prostate cancer and testicular cancer affect only men. Cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers affect only women. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in most countries. Men can also get breast cancer, but less than 1% of breast cancers occur in men.

Other health differences

Cognitive abilities and education

Cognitive abilities

On most tests of mental ability, the average differences between men and women are small, and most scores overlap. There are some consistent differences:

In the 2022 PISA tests of 15-year-old students, boys scored 9 points higher than girls in math, on average across OECD countries. Girls scored 24 points higher than boys in reading. Girls scored higher in reading in all countries except two, where the difference was not significant. In science, there was no significant difference.

Education

In every OECD country, young women are now more likely than young men to have a university degree. In 2022, 54% of women aged 25–34 had a tertiary degree, compared with 41% of men. Boys are more likely to repeat a school year and to leave school early. But women are still a minority of graduates in some fields. On average in OECD countries, women are about 28% of engineering graduates and 23% of information and communication technology (ICT) graduates.

Work and pay

Traditional roles

In most foraging and farming societies, men did most of the hunting, heavy farm work, herding, and fighting. Women did more of the gathering, child care, and food preparation. A 2023 study reported that women hunted in 79% of the foraging societies that it examined. Other researchers say that the study had errors in its data and that the division of labor by sex was real, although women sometimes hunted.

Work today

Men and women now work in all occupations, but many occupations are still mostly male or mostly female. Men are the majority in construction, mining, engineering, skilled trades, and the armed forces. Women are the majority in nursing, primary school teaching, and care work. For example, women are about 85% of the world's nurses.

Worldwide in 2023, about 72% of men and 47% of women were in the labor force. One main reason for this difference is unpaid work. Women do about 76% of all unpaid care and domestic work in the world, more than 3 times as much as men.

Pay

Worldwide, women are paid about 20% less than men on average. The gap is different in each country, from about 3% in Belgium to about 36% in Pakistan. Differences in occupation, working hours, and education explain only part of the gap. Education explains very little, because in most countries women employees are as well educated as men, or better. In almost all countries, the ILO found that most of the gap cannot be explained by these measurable factors.

References

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