I know right? The amount of snow clothes for men is two pages vs 20 pages for women’s. 
Hmmm, how to say this without sounding indelicate here? There is a photo of NFL player Jeff Driskel circulating all over social media today that puts to rest once and for all any debate regarding the “revealing” nature of men’s riding pants versus those worn in more mainstream men’s sports.
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Annoying but yes, seems that men do have a statistically significant advantage in reaction times… though it seems that practice improves response time so theoretically, men and women both with the same hours in the saddle should have a statistically insignificant difference ??:
Gender
A review of the literature on the influence of gender on RT shows that in almost every age group, males have faster RTs as compared to females, and female disadvantage is not reduced by practice.Researches done by Misra et al. also showed that males responded faster than females. Study done by Shelton and Kumar, Nikam and Gadkari also reported similar findings to support females have longer RTs than males. The results of our study [Table 2a] agree with these studies and indicate that male medical students have faster RTs when compared to female medical students for both auditory, as well as visual stimuli. In our study when sedentary male and female medical students [Table 2b] were compared removing any confounding factors, RTs of male students were faster; thereby further supporting the evidence that males have faster RTs than females.
The male-female difference is due to the lag between the presentation of the stimulus and the beginning of muscle contraction. It is documented in the literature that the muscle contraction time is the same for males and females and motor responses in males are comparatively stronger than females, this explains why males have faster simple RTs for both auditory as well as visual stimuli. Nowadays the male advantage is getting smaller, possibly because more women are participating in driving and fast-action sports. This is evident from [Table 2c] in which nonsignificant differences were obtained when regularly exercising male and female medical students were compared.
Link to study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456887/#:~:text=It%20is%20documented%20in%20the,as%20well%20as%20visual%20stimuli.
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For me, the idea that reaction time advantages are getting smaller highlights the possibility of change, based on shifts in societal norms. Look at running–once, it was stated in friggin’ scientific literature that women couldn’t even run marathons. Now, you have athletes like Courtney Dauwalter who are crushing multiple ultras, and sometimes women beat men at very long distances.
Encouraging women to be physical risk-takers in sport is still relatively recent in our society (ironically, with the possible exception of say, fox-hunting). And don’t estimate the psychology of sport (i.e. the mental barrier of the 4-minute mile that took a long time to break). I don’t think we can fully appreciate sometimes how earlier generations of women were hemmed in by clothing/ shame/ even “science” and “doctors” telling them not to fulfill their potential. In another 10+ years, I think there may be even more exciting improvements.
Although equestrian sports in some ways are more equal than others–women competing with men, women’s money having influence on the sport–it can also be slow to change. At least now we’re having these conversations.
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This study highlights, at least to me, that the intrinsic advantage isn’t in being born male, but being raised as a male. In other words, it’s not a biological advantage, it’s a societal privilege.
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I know this is a red-hot topic but I’m curious - can that study be interpreted to mean that transgender females don’t have an actual biological advantage over natural females in women’s sports? So all the hullaballoo about transgenders competing in women’s sports is just people making a mountain out of a molehill?
Edited to clarify - had my terms mixed up.
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No. Especially a transgender female (born male, transitioned to female) who went through puberty as a male (like, e.g., Lia Thomas, who didn’t transition until college). The physical changes a male undergoes during puberty provide a distinct physical/biological advantage over females in certain sports. Differences in musculature and lung capacity, for example.
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Thanks, that is also my understanding. I thought the study was trying to assert that there was no biological advantage, hence my confusion.
There’s a single thread that COTH has devoted to these issues, and the mods don’t want anything posted elsewhere.
Back in the late 1990s when I was young and dumb and thought I wanted to run the Marine Corps Marathon and read all the runner’s magazines I seem to recall that scientific studies were suggesting that women performed better than men at ultra-marathon distances.
I’ll have to dig around for current studies because it’s been a few minutes since I looked into the literature. Seems logical to me, though.
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The 19th century conviction that women were very frail and unable to undertake any exertion beyond lifting a needle or a paintbrush probably had a great more to do with ladies wearing extremely tight corsets, that crushed their rib cage and prevented their lungs from working properly, than with any marked physiological differences between men and women. Odd that we still have such ingrained thought habits.
Anyone else fed up that it is always, always the woman who trips/stumbles/falls/screams/cries as she is dragged along by the male hero figure in adventure movies?
Which takes us even further from the original question …
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I have to dig up the research but there is a similar vein of studies related to visual-spatial reasoning and gender. Raising girls to participate more in sport seems to narrow the gap, and also changes in how the tests are even administered. E.g., girls are enculturated to be people pleasers, and the environment a test is administered in has strong effects on scores.
Equestrian sport is super interesting because the “secret sauce” for winning performance is a true concurrent athletic exertion. Even in something like pairs skating, most of the movements are in parallel rather than bodies melded.
As such, there are “many roads to Rome”, in that there exists a variety of horses that require a significant physical strength to ride, and those that thrive under a light touch.
As a woman, I am on the physically stronger end of the bell curve. I have only ever felt like a horse was going to grab the bit and run away from me once, and that was fox hunting on a Percheron.
But I think having to bit a horse to the point of blood drawn is a serious training gap and sports like show jumping have historically been way too permissive.
I wonder how the ratios of men on mares/geldings relates to women riders on mares/geldings. I know there is a lot of bias against mares, too, and lost performance opportunity for them related to being broodmarea as well.
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My instructor has a lot of experience and feel, but also a LOT of strength. He can cover for the horse with his own muscles to correct balance/position etc. If you just look at grip strength on the reins. If he gripped my wrist he would grind my bones together. He would not even be uncomfortable if I did my very hardest grip on him.
We had the most wonderful work rider (a young woman). She was short, but did pretty extreme crossfit and weight training. Same for her. Her above-average strength and balance just smoothed out rides on young/difficult horses in a very very clear way.
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A lot of top riders, in any discipline, are also very good athletes in other sports as well, regardless of gender.
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I just finished reading a book by Jan Reynolds who broke records in high altitude skiing and mountaineering. In her day, she was pretty much the only woman on expeditions, and usually fared as well or better than the men. She talked about studies showing that the extra layer of fat that women have helps for endurance because it can provide extra calories. That should apply to ultramarathoners as well.
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@TheDBYC and @Eclectic_Horseman if you go by the “top of the top” ultra marathoners, the best of the best at the most challenging and prestigious events like Western States and UTMB are still men (we’re talking international level competition). But Courtney Dauwalter, who is a legend, placed 6th OVERALL this year at Western States, for example, and smashed the women’s course record by over an hour. And at many other ultras, women have come in first.
In general, the longer the race and the tougher the conditions, the more the gender gap closes, despite the fact that running is a much more physiologically based sport than, say, riding. The fact that women are smaller and have slower metabolisms can actually be helpful, given the crazy amount of fueling needed to do these races. But I also think that it is the fact that discipline, the mental game, and also technique (navigating some of these really challenging courses over terrain) is rewarded in a way that, say, just running around a flat track or running a less technical road marathon is.
Circling back to riding–I think strength IS an advantage when riding, but it is a question of having “enough” strength rather than being the strongest (I think this is also true of running, too). Years ago, I remember taking a group riding lesson with a bunch of fellow middle-aged women, and it really surprised me how some of them got winded even just walking out to catch the horses in the field, tack up and groom, and while some had ridden since childhood and were probably better riders than I was at the time, got winded just cantering a lap or two around the arena.
The instructor was very into relaxation, and being “soft” and stressed that riding isn’t about strength, but balance and feel, but I ultimately didn’t find those lessons helpful because balance requires core strength and being able to “give” also needs to come from a place of strength. But I do think more and more women now are getting the athletic background from childhood to be able to do this! So, again, I am convinced the gap will close more and more in all sports, especially more mental and technique-based sports like ultra running, riding, and others.
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I participated in another individual sport where the vast majority of participants were men. I was often the only woman at our local club. Although the guys were generally friendly and accepting, it was weird to be the only female. I worked HARD at improving my skills and knowledge, not just because I’m competitive and wanted to be better, but also as a way to feel like I belonged in a community where I stuck out just because of my gender. My improvement from completely green to competing at a high level happened a lot faster than for a lot of the guys who didn’t put as much effort into improving. I also got a lot of opportunities to participate in teams outside of my area that needed a female member on their roster, which helped me make a lot of connections outside of our local club. Doors opened and I was more memorable because I was different.
Despite loving riding, I don’t think I have that same fierce drive to improve that I did with the other sport. Don’t get me wrong - I still want to get better and want to win - but I don’t have that extra fire that came from feeling like an outsider. And I blend in a lot more (and therefore am less memorable) by default.
This is just my own experience, but I wonder if some of the things I’ve experienced apply to male equestrians.
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Would these studies have different results if non-western societies were used? How about primarily matriarchal societies where women do the brunt of physical labor?
This conversation reminds me of a study I read in college – so, a long time ago – about (isolated) African cultures. I cannot remember specifics which makes this almost useless, but the takeaway was in matriarchal societies, women were better at figuring out novel puzzles than men were. But the inverse was true in patriarchal societies, which suggested that there was a strong bias at play in how they were raised versus their innate intelligence.
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What?
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I agree. I hate the women screaming in movies all the time. I joke with my DH that once I’d love to hear a dude screaming in terror in a movie. (He agrees!) Might not help that many of us women wear super-high stiletto heels and ask a guy to walk us up stairs at awards ceremonies, etc., to avoid falling on our faces. How many falls on the red carpet have happened? (Personal pet peeve of mine, sorry.)
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