In the first place, women live about six years longer than men. There are 43 people in the world known to be at least 110 years old. This may come as a shock, but 42 are women, according to the Global Gerontology Research Group. The University of Southern Denmark’s Institute of Public Health has studied the life expectancy records of many societies and countries as far back as 250 years and has determined that the difference between man and woman is due to biological factors such as genetics and hormones. In short, they say “Newborn girls are hardier than newborn boys.” 

Even when life expectancy was 20 years or less in Trinidad plantations worked by slaves, females outlived males. The Danes reported that girls were “hardier” than boys in famines in Sweden, in Ireland during the big potato famine, and during a devastating famine in the Ukraine in the 20thh Century. Females lived to the age of 10.85 years, males to only 7.3 years. Icelanders had the same result of girls outliving boys in the huge measles epidemics of 1846 and 1882. When freed American slaves relocated to Liberia between 1820 and 1843, they recorded the highest mortality rate in history when 43% died within one year of their arrival. Life expectancy for girls was 2.23 years, for boys it was only 1.68 years.

Lead researcher Virginia Zarulli points out that perhaps the double X chromosomes present in females and the hormone estrogen may provide the difference in life spans. Females have two X chromosomes and sometimes one has a bad mutation and the good one may compensate for it. Men do not have that possibility. Zarilli also reports: “The most prominent female hormones, oestrogens, protect blood vessels and defend against a range of diseases. Testosterone, the most prominent male hormone, increases the risk of several fatal conditions. Reckless behaviors, more typical of men because of testosterone, also increase the risk of accidental and violent deaths.”

It’s Time For Men and Women To Swap Planets

In 1992, relationship counselor John Gray wrote his best-selling book Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus which sold more than 15 million copies and stayed on the top of the best-seller list for 121 weeks. It was a mighty big deal. The book was about the relationship problems that exist between men and women. Gray claimed that the problem was because of fundamental psychological differences  between the sexes. That’s why he used the metaphor that a great deal of distance existed between the two planets they were on, and that both sexes are acclimated to radically different societies and customs. They don’t often understand each other. Gray made the point that each sex responds differently to stress and stressful situations. 

As we currently have Kim Vladimir Trump and all of his “acting” cabinet leaders talking about making another space trip to the moon and perhaps later to Mars for political  purposes, an article in the latest National Geographic by Madia Blake “Let’s Send Only Women To Space” caught my eye. She cites rather overwhelming evidence that our next interplanetary space mission should be made up of an all-female astronaut crew. Writes: “Women are better suited for space travel than men.” That’s why I have suggested that men and women should swap planets — because the women would be going “home.”

Blake cites several important factors: 

(1) Women are generally about 15% smaller than men; therefore, it takes less rocket power to get them off earth, 

(2) Women have some personality traits more innately suited  for long-duration flights,

(3) Populating planet Mars would require biological reproduction of humans which only women can accomplish on distant planets, 

(4) Women take up less space, have lower body weights, and would require less food, water, oxygen, and other resources than men, who need 15 to 25% more calories per day than women, and 

(5) Smaller women produce less waste such as carbon dioxide and other excretions, thus decreasing the demands on systems designed to recycle and remove waste. Back in 2013 in a four-month metabolic experiment, women were found to expend less than half the calories of men despite similar activity levels. Women in space flights also seem to tolerate the conditions slightly better than men. The evidence appears to support the idea our Mars crew should be all-female. NASA has not studied whether transgenders should be part of long-distance trips such as Mars.

Why Seven White Air Force Test Pilots Were Picked To Be The First Astronauts

Over the 58 years the United States has sent humans into space orbits only 11%, or 63, have been women. An all female mission has never been considered by NASA although women are potentially better suited for space travel than men. Here are some reasons why  89% of our astronauts have been men. Ed Dwight had always wanted to be an astronaut so he joined the Air Force and became a very “hot” pilot. He flew all kinds of planes with great skill and had over 9,000 hours of flight time. In 1962 he flew an F-104 Starfighter to the edge of space—and shut the engine off for a while. He was among the pilots chosen to be trained to become astronauts at Edwards Air Force Base in California under Chuck Yaeger. 

Yaeger was one of our most accomplished pilots. He had flown almost everything in the Air Force and had coined this popular phrase for pilots to remember in the cockpit: “There are old pilots and bold pilots — but they’re not any old, bold pilots.” But Dwight was black during those Jim Crow days. NASA was concerned about having a black as part of the first team. NASA was concerned about politics. What if a black person had landed on the moon first and uttered the words “one small step for man” and set the plaque and flag in place? It took 20 years for a black astronaut to fly into space after Ed Dwight was being trained to be one. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had solved that problem by ordering that all astronauts would be chosen from a list of Air Force test pilots. At that time there were no black test pilots although Ed Dwight was certainly qualified to be one. 

That’s why Tom Wolfe in his book The Right Stuff described the first astronauts as “seven patriotic God-fearing small-town Protestant family men with excellent backing on the home front.” And they were all white.

“The Weaker Sex? Science Shows That Women Are Stronger Than Men”

Women going to Mars and men just looking at Venus at midnight should read Angela Saini’s article by the above title. She covers the work of Professor Steven Austad of the biology department of the University of Alabama, an international expert on geriatrics and aging. He has studied why women live longer than men for over 20 years. He claims that “Pretty much at every age women seem to survive better than men.” His international database has been collected since records have been kept around the world. It proves that women outlive men by between five and six years. 

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine keeps track of the million babies who die on the day of their birth each year in the world. Ten percent more boy babies die on the first day than girl babies. Scientists are still trying to discover why. Australian scientists are working on the premise that the mother’s placenta may behave differently for girls, doing more to maintain the pregnancy and to increase immunity against infections. Saini writes: “Greek legend could only imagine the Amazons, female warriors as powerful as men. No, our everyday women we have just half the upper body strength as men. We are six inches shorter, depending on where we live. We wield power, but it’s emotional and intellectual, we tell ourselves. It’s not in our bodies.”

The edge for women to live longer than men is there from the beginning. Doctors and nurses who run neonatal units know that more boys than girls die while in the unit. Why is still somewhat of a mystery. Director Kathryn Sandberg of the Centre for the Study of Sex Differences in Health, Aging, and Disease at Georgetown University contributes the following info: “Cardiovascular disease occurs much earlier in men than women. The age of onset of hypertension (high blood pressure) also occurs much earlier in men than women. And there is a sex difference in the rate of progression of the disease.”

Professor Austad has determined that women die at lower rates than men from 12 of the 15 most common causes of death, including cancer and heart disease, when adjusted for age. The three exceptions are Parkinson’s, stroke, and Alzheimer’s.

Many Species On Earth Are Led By Females

As a farm boy who often had to “herd” the cows from pasture to barn, I soon learned that the smartest cow usually ended up being the leader from Point A to Point B. We didn’t even allow the bulls to be in the same pasture because they were nothing but trouble. The old adage that the human male had only enough blood to operate the penis or the brain—but never at the same time--also holds for males of many species. Bulls simply acted like serial rapists, dashing around, bellowing, snorting, and playing the sexy Trump.

Why are elephant herds always led by mature females? Same deal. Bull elephants usually are stomping around, waving big ears, charging at alleged attackers or Land Rovers, and impregnating smaller females. Then they go into some sublime bachelor land where they don’t have to worry about raising their offspring or protecting them. The bull elephants often stay some distance from the herd because they seem to know the matriarch remembers where the food and waterholes are. So they follow along. The same thing happens to the King of the Jungle, the male lion. With that big shaggy mane and aristocratic attitude, he pretends to be the leader of the pride, but he depends upon the females to hunt and kill. He then shows up for supper. 

I see Shaun Moser of West Fargo in a Forum letter claimed men have the “natural” right to rule. He asserted: “I sweat, ache, and sometimes bleed through every work week, doing a job that most women cannot do. There are millions of men just like me. We protect our ladies, and we build buildings so they can be safe and comfy. The strength to build and protect comes with the natural right to rule.” I believe there is sufficient scientific evidence to prove that women are stronger than men. Large biceps are not better than equal brains. In 2010 Amber Miller completed the Chicago Marathon and gave birth seven hours after crossing the finish line. How many big strong men would complete a marathon with a 12-pound watermelon strapped to their belly?