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f ' t The masculine body re-
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\ 1 arms and legs in propor
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By Dr. Donald A. Laird
Director, Colgate University Psychologi
cal Laboratory, Hamilton, New York
EVERYONE is acquainted with the
superficial differences between
men and women. Differences in
complexion and fairness of skin,
voice differences, rough differences in
height and weight, in body contour, and
even size of feet. But more important
and less obvious physical differences be
tween men and women ordinarily pass
unnoticed. And many of these seldom
observed sex differences are of consid
erable racial and individual importance
in social relations, life work, and happi
ness, of such importance that scientists
have devoted much study to them.
As Dr. Knight Dunlap, famous psy
chologist. observes, “not only are the
psychological differences closely related
to the physiological and anatonomical
differences, but in the present state of
our knowledge it is impossible to evalu
ate properly in the field of psychological
differences without a consideration of
these others.”
These ordinarily invisible sex differ
ences are, in fact, so marked that the
late Jacques Loeb, distinguished biolo
gist of the University of Chicago, con
sidered men and women different spe
cies. As distinct as ducks are from
turkeys, horses from zebras, a fox ter
rier from a St. Bernard!
What, then, are some of these physi
cal differences that make many men of
science take this view? For one thing,
men are built more like apes. Men,
comparatively speaking, have long arms
and legs and a short trunk; this is the
general body or morphologic build of
the apes. Women, in contrast, almost
uniformly have short arms and legs in
comparison to the length of their trunk.
As body build of men resembles apes,
the body build of women in this ratio
resembles infants.
rpHERE is one important general de
tail, however, in which women
differ from men, infants, and apes. This
is in their hips being wider, often wider
than their shoulders. Os course, some
women are slight exceptions to such
general statements. Joan of Arc, for
instance, had the body proportions more
of a boy or man than of a woman. Most
of the statues of her in France are
idealized and give her the figure of a
woman rather than the slightly mascu
line, though frail, build that she really
possessed. Among a few primitive peo
ples, such as the Tamils, all the women
have the Joan of Arc build, and when
wearing a loin cloth men and women
cannot be told apart, except in a very
few cases.
Woman’s index finger is relatively
larger, and her thumbs shorter than
man’s. Woman’s legs slant inward more
between hip and knee. Many of their
joints are formed differently.
Their eyes are usually darker. Thy
roid gland, stomach, "Iddneys, bladder,
and possibly liver are larger.
The heart of a woman beats faster
than man’s by 8 to 10 pulsations per
minute. Women's blood contains more
water, and fewer red cells by a half
million per cubic millimeter of blood,
and this difference in red corpuscles
varies from week to week during the
month. In white blood cells, which
combat germ invasions, however, there
is no consistent difference between men
and women. Poets have written about
the heart of women without knowing
these surprising details.
Men have long scornfully mentioned
women as “the weaker sex,” and not
without considerable basis in fact, al
though it must be admitted that when
men use this phrase they are usually
ignorant of the facts.
W/OMEN do not have the muscu
** lar strength of men; but this may
be a biological weakness, and it may
not, as we shall see shortly. Women
are, on the average, about 4 inches
shorter and 20 pounds lighter than men.
Yet the ratio of weight to strength in
the case of women is 1 to 0.54, while
in men it is 1 to 0.87.
This means that if a woman weighing
100 pounds could lift at most a weight
of 54 pounds, a man of the same weight
could lift 87 pounds. This of course
does not alter the fact that a 100-pound
woman with a 2-pound rolling pin in
her hands may be more dangerous than
a 200-pound truck driver with a bag
of cement under his arms. As we shall
see shortly, this strength difference ap
plies even to the women of the Amer
ican Indians.
This proportionate greater power of
The feminine agUg a i \\ i
that of an in- ■■■Hl \ . L ■
fant. arms and |
trunk long
. i
Women have a larger per cent
of body fat than men. That
helps account for both the
beauty and swimming prowess
of Eleanor Holm Jarrett. But
strenuous competition has also
developed Mrs. Jarrett's shoul
ders so that they are as wide
as those of a man.
men, even when allowance is made
for weight, is hot due to environment
but to another detail of physical con
stitution. Women normally have a
larger percentage of body fat, and pro
portionately less muscular tissue. That,
of course, gives a roundness .and soft
ness to woman’s body that is one of her
attractions, even though it does make
her in fact weaker muscularly.
It also accounts for the aquatic feats
of such swimmers as Katherine Rawls,
Lenore Kight Wingard, Eleanor Holm
Jarrett and others.
Women excel in water sports on ac
count of their relatively larger amount
of fatty tissues. This tissue has a lower
specific gravity and consequently is
more buoyant.
Some feminists would like to mini
mize such observations as these and
claim that men are stronger than
women because this is unfortunately a
“man’s world,” and that if women
worked in the open or at manual labor
as men do, then woman’s strength
would be as great as man’s.
\ /
m.
r)R. ALES HRDLICKA of the Smith
sonian Institution has probed this
question in a special study of strength
among American Indians where the
women did all the hard work. Here,
surely, where women have every oppor
tunity to develop maximum muscular
strength, is a test of whether these sig
nificant sex differences are due to en
vironment and custom, or to a basic and
inherent difference.
The Indian women, Dr. Hrdlicka
found, in spite of their full opportunity
lor muscular development, had only
about 66 per cent of the strength of
Ibeir indolent men. And, further, Indian
men are taller than Indian women to
about the same degree that white men
exceed white women. And, although the
Indian heart beats slower than the pale
lace's heart, nevertheless the heari of
Indian women beats as much faster as
the white woman’s heart beats faster!
Brain size and weight furnish more
interesting contrasts between men and
women. The average man’s brain
weighs from 1350 to 1400 grams, while
Ihe average woman’s brain ranges from
1200 to 1250 grams. Woman’s brain thus
about 10 per cent lighter or smaller
than man’s.
Scientists are still uncertain, however,
about the importance of mere brain
weight; some think that the ratio ol
hr; m weight to body weight is the im
pel tant indicator, others—and more re
cently—that it is really the size of the
blood vessels supplying the brain that
counts.
- he 10 per cent difference in weight
between man's and woman’s brain
t< vers the woman, for woman’s body
weight is 15 to 18 per cent less than
man s, giving her relatively more brain
ratio.
Ine sex differences outlined in this
article are essential facts.
•But what do all these differences add
up to? Do they mean that man or that
woman is the superior creature?
- r ' c reader will have to decide these
anr other similar and fascinating ques
tions for himself.