Eli5 Why are women so much shorter than men?
In: 60
As I so often begin in ELI5: Your question contains a false premise.
1) Average male in US is 5′ 9″. Average female is 5′ 4″ . That’s a 7% difference. Women are not “so much shorter” they are quite close.
2) We live in a time of abundance which may not align with the environment in which we evolved over the last few million years. In times of scarcity, the height difference may have shrunk a little with women being 5′ 1″ and men down to 5′ 4″ (but this is speculative)
In conclusion: men and women are surprisingly similar in height. The slight difference in height may be an accident of sex hormones sealing up growth plates sooner for women. While evolution has pretty clearly favored more muscular strength in men, it has not had as strong a say in height, and in fact height can be an evolutionary disadvantage depending on the environment.
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