Women Are More Likely Than Men To Survive A Crisis Because Of Course They Are

A Duke University study proves that women are way tougher than we give them credit for

A new study from Duke University has shown that women aren’t just statistically proven to outlive men, they’re also more likely to survive in times of crisis.

Women all over the world right now:

Women tend to have a longer life expectancy than men all over the world — we’ve known that for a long time. What’s new is that the study found that women also have a longer life expectancy in times of crisis, like during a famine or when held as slaves. The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences scientific journal, studied life spans of men and women in populations who experienced crises over the last 250 years, like survivors of the Ukraine famine in 1933 and freed slaves from Liberia in the 1820s. In all the populations except one, women had higher life expectancy than men, even in conditions where the overall mortality rate was high.

What’s even more surprising is that a lot of that higher life expectancy for women came from a better survival rate for newborn girls than boys. Researchers don’t know exactly why, but baby girls were more likely to survive extreme circumstances than baby boys were, which leads scientists to believe it may have something to do with genes or hormones, rather than behaviors and social norms (like how men are more likely to smoke, fight in wars and other activities that lower their overall life expectancy).

So all those movies and TV shows that stereotypically portray women as weak and emotional, especially compared to male characters? LOL. “Our results add another piece to the puzzle of gender differences in survival,” the researchers said. And the puzzle adds up to women being strong and amazing, which, hello.

Bottom line, we now have proof of what we already knew: Ladies kick ass. It’s just science.