Women live longer than men, in part due to medical reasons such as greater immunity to disease and less heart disease. Beyond the medical explanations, how does sociology explain why women live longer than men?

Question

How do these explanations fit gender-egalitarian and gender-polarized countries?
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Biology alone does not explain the difference. Men are more likely than women to die of accidents; younger men often engage in risky behavior to prove their masculinity. Men spend more time in the public sphere, where they are more likely to get into accidents, commit violent crimes, be victimized by crime, and be exposed to illnesses and hazardous material. As more women are in the work force in gender-egalitarian countries, we would expect the gap between men and women to decrease there, but the gap is also shrinking rapidly in gender-polarized countries. The latter may be due to both women and men being increasingly susceptible to poor nutrition or health care, HIV, or violence and war in gender-polarized or poor countries. At the same time, in gender-egalitarian or rich countries, better health care and nutrition mean that both women and men are living longer.