Physical strength and gendered upbringings

73 points67 commentssubmitted by Semi_Wise to r/AskFeminists

Hi all! I know everyone here has heard the really cheap anti-feminist argument that because women are physically weaker than men (in some ways) that women must be inherently inferior to men. I don’t really have any issues arguing against this idea; physical strength obviously isn’t the only valuable characteristic in humans.

What I do wonder about, though, is how much stronger women would be physically if children of all genders were raised equally?

Now I haven’t formally studied any of this, but I do have some examples from my own (very old fashioned) childhood that help shape these ideas for me.

When I was about 11-14, I was criticized by my parents for gaining weight during puberty and my coaches for dance and gymnastics told me to slim down to remain competitive. My brother also experienced weight gain during puberty, and was praised by my parents and coaches and everyone almost seemed overjoyed that he was a “big boy”

As a result I limited my own calories substantially during the crucial growing years of puberty to stay under 100lbs, while my brother ate as much as he wanted, mostly protein, and ended up getting pretty overweight before he hit his growth spurts and got tall and lean. He ended up being over 6 feet tall and I’m exactly 5 feet tall.

I also read this story years ago about young athletes increasing height and strength during puberty by following high calorie diets and strict workout programs.

Although I don’t know of any research on this topic (if anyone else knows of any studies on these things please let me know!) and can’t verify this idea, I can’t help but think that any organism given more nutrients would grow better than one that was limited in nutrient intake.

I know I’m not the only girl who was subtlety encouraged not to eat during puberty. Girls in my high school participated in the lemonade and cayenne pepper cleanse frequently as a way of fasting to keep extra pounds off.

Eating too much and/or getting seconds isn’t ladylike, but growing boys can eat whatever and however much they want.

TL;DR: would the disparity in strength between men and women be as great if all children were raised without sexism?