Despite the differences between countries, the average foot size for women changes between US women’s 5 to 10 (EU 35 to 42), whereas the one for men changes between US men’s 7 to 10 (EU 40 to 44), except a few ones like [a man from Europe I saw on IG having EU 38 feet which is pretty small for a male and wearing women’s shoes especially the ones with pointy toes and stiletto heels](https://instagram.com/withhighheels?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
Saw a few men with feet bigger than US 10 too, like Shaquille O’Neal with size 22 and Dwayne Johnson with size 14.
Why is there such a difference?
In: 1053
Because men are taller.
> Why are men taller?
Because [oestrogen makes the bones grow shorter](https://www.quantamagazine.org/males-are-the-taller-sex-estrogen-not-fights-for-mates-may-be-why-20200608/#:~:text=Because%20men%20are%20taller%20than,effect%20that%20nature%20was%20selecting.) than men, including feet bones.
Fun fact: during pregnancy, the woman’s body produces more “*relaxin*”, which [loosens the hips ligament fibres](https://www.verywellfamily.com/do-your-hips-return-to-their-pre-pregnancy-size-after-childbirth-5204988#:~:text=Why%20Your%20Hips%20Expand%20During,a%20baby%2C%20begins%20to%20increase.) to widen the hips in precision of the delivery.
Relaxin also causes the feet to grow by as much as one size.
Men’s hands are larger than women’s, and are shaped slightly differently, being far wider… I always just assumed that feet and hands were closely related, physiologically speaking (in most primates they are indistinguishable), so whatever mechanism causes men to have larger hands also manifests itself in larger feet. I never thought it was simply related to height… You just sort of “know” when you are looking at the hands of a man or woman, even if that is all that you can see.
Are you asking about why do women have a larger shoe size range than men? If men’s range is 7-10, why is women’s range 5-10?
Everyone seemed to respond to the title, not the description.
I’m 5’5 with a size 9EEEE men’s shoe.
I worked with a woman who was 5’1, slender, and had feet bigger than mine.
There are anamolies.
Screw that. What about that they can’t get some OSHA to have all shoe companies to use the same ruler?
A size 8 in Nike is different from a size 8 in Reebok. It’s like frick, what is wrong with you people??
I don’t see any actual ELI5 responses yet, so one is below for you:
Boy is more big than girl, so boy foot more big than girl foot.
Are you asking why men are larger than women overall? Or is there something specific about foot size that makes you think it should be equal even though men are larger?
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Because men are usually bigger than women. How do you not know this?
I’m a 6’1″ guy with feet measuring 11″ in length. Narrow with both high arch and high instep. Us men’s 9-10, women’s 11, Eur43-44 fit me the best. Being I have narrow feet women’s shoes generally are more comfortable to me.
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