Gender Differences – Effect on Sport and Physical Performance
There is an age old argument as to whether men or women are better at certain performance areas in life. This argument will probably never be solved across the dinner table, however when it comes to physical performance and sport there are some undeniable physical and physiological differences between male and females that ultimately impact on performance results.
It has long been recognised that females are more likely to enter a stage of maturity and pubertal development at an earlier age than males. In fact, in some circles it is often said that females develop their maturity well ahead of males and in fact males never catch up! What has been documented is that peak height velocity gain occurs at a younger age in females. Females often enter their growth spurt at an average of between 10 and 13 years of age, where for males it is often between 12 and 15. In terms of ultimate height status, women tend to reach their peak height at aged 17 to 19 years whereas for males it is sometimes in their early 20’s.
One consistent advantage that males have been demonstrated to have has been strength. Whilst there are probably a number of factor contributing to this the primary reason is the androgenic hormone advantage (principally testosterone) that males possess. The strength differences are most marked in the upper body where there can be up to a 50% deficit in females compared to males. In the lower body the absolute deficit is more in the range of 20 to 30%. When comparing strength related sports it has been documented that the maximal overall body strength of females approximates at 60 to 70% of males. This is probably most noticeable in events such as Olympic and power lifting when looking at the performances of males lifters versus female. Traditionally males have tended to undertake weight training at a younger age than females across a variety of cultures and sports and this may also contribute to the strength discrepancies.
Another important physiological difference is in body fat composition. In general, females have approximately a 10% greater body fact percentage than males. In the general community females average 22 to 25% body fat whereas males are around 10 to 12%. In the elite sporting population female athletes are in the range of 15 to 20% body fat whereas elite males are closer to 5 to 10% depending on sport selection. The impact of body fat differences has been studied particularly in sports such as swimming. Higher body fat results in higher water buoyancy and therefore more economy in swimming. When comparing male and female performances, particularly in endurance swimming, the discrepancy becomes less as distances increase. For example, in the English Channel swimming, the male record is around 7 hours, 17 minutes compared to the female of 7 hours, 40 minutes. This 23 minute difference in performance equates to only 5.2% difference between male and female records.
Another important difference in males and females is in their blood composition. Females tend to have fewer red blood cells with a haemoglobin level of roughly 10 to 15% lower than males. They possess on average less blood volume and lower iron levels. This contributes to an overall deficit in maximal oxygen uptake (a measure of endurance – aerobic performance). Where the difference between males and females in the community can run between 15 to 30%, in the elite athlete population females lag behind roughly 10 to 20% compared to their male counterparts.
The differences in lung volume capacity are also noticeable with a combination of size and blood haemopoietic changes mean that the respiratory capacity of females is behind that of males. This is not necessarily true when we look at respiratory efficiency, but in absolute raw numbers females have less capacity.
There may also be some biologically inherent gender differences between male and females which are not explained by the above studies. When all performance criteria are taken into account and when corrections are made for obvious measurable differences such as body mass, haemoglobin levels, muscle mass, percentage body fat, prior training, etc, there still remains a performance advantage in males of roughly 10 to 15% in strength performance, aerobic and endurance parameters and overall physical status.
However, there are some researchers that believe females have an advantage over males in their mental application to performance tasks. This would include strategy planning, tactile manoeuvring and other non physical parameters. Perhaps this reflects an overall intelligence advantage of the women over men?