What if women become physically stronger than men?

Strength can be physical, mental, emotional, or psychological. During the last 50 years, women almost caught up to men in education, jobs, businesses, and many other spheres. But the big difference in physique remains, resulting from the evolution of thousands of years. 

But we wonder, what if women were physically stronger than men? How would the world look with women being the stronger gender?

Interestingly, if we pay attention to the animal kingdom, we see that most species have larger females, for instance, insects, frogs, most fishes, spiders, owls, etc.). They are larger and stronger as they have to carry hundreds of eggs in their bodies. Most terrestrial vertebrates are exceptions to this law, and so are we. So this easily creates the curiosity to think, what if the same natural rules were followed for humans too?

Coming to facts and data, on average, men are larger and stronger than women, possessing 26 lbs (10kg) of skeletal muscle, 40% more upper-body strength, and 33% more lower-body strength. According to this study, a man will be physically stronger than a woman of his age, even if the woman is six inches taller than him. 

Similar development occurs in a boy and a girl during neonatal and childhood. After some period, reproductive development starts, i.e. the involvement of testosterone and estrogen. On one side, testosterone helps to form muscle, thickens bones, and increases stamina. On the other side, estrogen does the exact opposite - obstacles in muscle formation and accumulates fat.

Now if women suddenly become stronger than men, they must have bigger bones and more muscles. This change requires more production of testosterone. The increased amount of testosterone in women’s bodies will ultimately result in complexities in having children. Besides, the mentioned change may naturally make the men caregiver of the children as women have to work outside.

Men surpass women in a few ways. Body strength is one of them. If the condition is reversed, it would be a big challenge in traditional masculinity. Massive change is bound to come in heterosexual relationships. Man-on-women violence rate will go down. 

Women often tend to keep themselves in lower positions to attract men, as their male counterparts seldom make peace with their success. While it is interpreted that men usually don't prefer their female partner to be more successful, many ask the opposite question - are women comfortable enough to accept a male partner who is less successful than them? 

If women suddenly became stronger, they would no longer intentionally keep themselves in a lower position to attract insecure men. Well, there can always be some exceptions, but the significant part is yet to change.

With time, the difference between women and men is narrowing. And in recent years, it’s the least. Why is that? We are more and more becoming dependent on technology. Robots and machines do the heavy work. Therefore the privileges men used to get for being stronger is reducing daily, as we rely more on intellect than body strength. 

Women are advancing in spheres where they couldn’t perform earlier. Men are coming out of age-old norms and accepting female bosses, more earning wives. Yet we all know a man can lift more weight than a woman. And therefore, the more-strength-more-power theory prevails as men continue to have an advantage over women. 

Though power and dominance don’t depend on strength and size. White people are of normal size and physically weaker than black people, yet they dominated people of colour for years.

Returning to the main topic, greater strength will result in a change of psychology of facing a man's behavioural traits, for example, anger, aggressiveness, etc. 

According to a study in 2014, in the US, 73 per cent of the people arrested for different criminal activities were men. In July 2021, the number of female offenders worldwide was found to be 12.3 per cent. So, we can see that, naturally, males are more violent than females. 

However, there is an ongoing debate- are men more violent because they are stronger, or are they stronger because they have to be violent? Throughout history, men acted as the protector, fighting against the wilderness of nature. If women become more assertive, they will be less prone to harassment. But we cannot assume that the crime rate will decrease as women may take the lead in crimes then.

It won’t be right to think that ladies' unrivalled strength would be harmless. In homosexual relationships, 17-45 per cent of lesbians report being assaulted at their partner's hand. Why does the stronger abuse the weaker? Because they can. The matter is the same for both genders.

Male supremacy is prevailing for a long time. Even if women suddenly become stronger, breaking the shackles would still take years. That’s the deal with power. The one in power will take any measures to stay in power. 

Neither women are suddenly becoming stronger, nor the fight for equal rights will end anytime soon.

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