Why do females actually live longer?

[Crazy Tosser]

I see girls/women on this forum already posting so many topics about terrible things that go on in the world and express excessive empathy to everything and everyone and feel terrible if someone/something else feels terrible you would expect them to die from a nervous breakdown when they are 25.

Any ideas why women actually live longer, on average?

 

[mgb_phys]

They don't have wives

 

[waht]

Maybe because the X has four lines and a Y three...

 

[Pythagorean]

They don't have wives

I think you might be on to something.

 

[hypatia]

Cause deep inside we are a lioness, hear us roar !

 

[Gnosis]

They don't have wives

No arguments here, you hit the mark!

 

[russ_watters]

They drive less than men.

 

[tribdog]

In order to make a person's life miserable on a daily basis one must outlive said person by at least one day.

 

[tribdog]

In the beginning God asked man and woman if they had any requests. Man said "I would gladly give up 10 years of my life if that life was spent with a lovely woman to love."
Woman said, "I want those extra 10 years if I got to put up with him."

 

[tribdog]

So they can always have the last word.

 

[tribdog]

Damn, those are three gems right there. I think women will outlive me because I put so much of myself into making jokes for the people of PF to not only enjoy, but share with loved ones as well.

 

[Santa1]

They don't have wives

In Norway, they do.

 

[Borek]

Seriously speaking, I have read about the research done somewhere in Scandinavia (was it Sweden?). They browsed old census registers (or church books, or something similar). Most of the country was inhabiteted by people living in separate households, so many other factors were automatically eliminated. What they found was that those families living with Gradmothers had - on average - more surviving kids. That hints at simple biological/evolutionary explanation.

Somehow I can't google it right now.

 

[khemix]

In my family, the males outlive the females by atleast 10 years. Both sides. So this female thing never really applied to me.

 

[BobG]

They don't have wives

Cause deep inside we are a lioness, hear us roar !

Ask a male a question, a nice, coherent and concise answer.

Ask a woman a question, and bandwidth exceeeded.

(No, no typo, I mean really, really exceeeeded).

 

[Crazy Tosser]

Ask a male a question, a nice, coherent and concise answer.

Ask a woman a question, and bandwidth exceeeded.

(No, no typo, I mean really, really exceeeeded).

Ladies and gentlemen, PhysicsForums presents a nice and concise answer to the topic's question! [applaud]
[back to the topic]
But I am pretty sure that women on average outlive even single men, how is that possible?

 

[mcknia07]

Ladies and gentlemen, PhysicsForums presents a nice and concise answer to the topic's question! [applaud]



[back to the topic]
But I am pretty sure that women on average outlive even single men, how is that possible?

Well...it's because we are just awesome like that!
Simple answer.

 

[mgb_phys]

[back to the topic]
But I am pretty sure that women on average outlive even single men, how is that possible?

Genetics - men have half a chromosome less and suffer higher pre-natal and infant mortality so that although slightly more males are conceived about equal numbers survive childhood.

Evolution - males compete with other males for females. So it's in his genes best interest to have a strong youth that can fight off other males. If he dies younger after the genes don't care, they have already made lots of copies.

In more recent times war and manual/dangerous jobs have taken a toll on men. This is changing in most developed countries and the survival gap is being reduced.
Now society has an appreciable effect, suicide among teenage boys is much higher, but smoking is rising faster among teenage girls.

 

[russ_watters]

About 1 year of the 5.4 years (by my calculation) really is the driving thing. Men drive 60-65% more than women and die more than twice as often in car accidents: http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/car-crash-men-woman.html