Why Are Women Runners Less Competitive Than Men?

Several studies confirm the basic finding, but differ in their explanations.

Thursday, January 3, 2013, 12:00 am

A half dozen years ago a marathoning psychologist named Robert Deaner began publishing papers (find them here) that seemed to show women athletes are less competitive, on average, than male athletes. A number of his studies have looked at road-race statistics and distributions.

Deaner’s not going to win any popularity contests with this line of research, so it’s important to note the “on average” proviso. He’s not saying that Paula Radcliffe, Deena Kastor, Shalane Flanagan, and friends aren’t fiercely fast and tough. He’s saying that the women who finish in 5th, 10th, and nth place behind the female race winners are often farther back, relatively, than the 5th, 10th, and nth place male finishers. That is, the 10th place female might be 15 percent behind the female winner, while the 10th place male is likely to be only 10 percent behind the male winner.


A new study of 31 years of New York City Marathon data, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (MSSE), has confirmed Deaner’s analysis. (Find the abstract here.) The researchers compiled and analyzed all the results for the top 10 men and women from 1980 through 2010, in 10-year age-groups. They also took a stab at an explanation, which is the hard part.

Marquette University’s Sandra Hunter and Alyssa Stevens concluded that roughly a third of the difference between male and female race distributions is due to the lower participations rates of women. When more women participate, the top 10 women get more competitive. That still leaves two-thirds of the difference seeking another explanation. Most physiologists agree that vo2 max, lactate threshold, and running economy--the Big Three of endurance performance--are not factors in the distribution differences.

In one telling analysis, Hunter and Stevens found that the male-female distribution gap shrank over the 31 years, as more women began competing. However, it remained very high in the older age groups, which have many more male racers, by percent, than female racers. The table below shows the gap shrinking from 1980-1985 vs 2006-2010, but remaining large in the 70-79 age group in 2006-2010, because that age group has remained mostly men.

Male-Female Time Gap: Through The Years And Age Groups





1980-1985: 16.2%



2006-2010: 12.7%



2006-2010:  20.8%


* additional note: the differential between the male and female world records for most distances is 10 to 11 percent

Deaner wrote an accompanying editorial in MSSE, agreeing and disagreeing with the Hunter-Stevens report. He agrees with their findings but not necessarily their explanation emphasizing the causal influence of participation rate. Rather he says: “I have argued that the most parsimonious explanation … is that more male than female distance runners are motivated to maintain the large training volumes and intensive training needed for elite performances.”

So, the question is: Why do you think women runners are, on average, less competitive than male runners?

Tags: Columns