Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of SexThomas, William Isaac
Science
Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex
Thomas, William Isaac
Sex; Women -- Social and moral questions; Women -- Social conditions
------------------------------------
Years | Men | Women
--------------------+-------+-------
85-90 | 1,296 | 1,347
90-95 | 700 | 820
95-100 | 305 | 370
100-105 | 116 | 168
105-110 | 52 | 69
110 and over | 20 | 34
------------------------------------
Of the 459 centenarians 188 were men and 271 were women.[88] In
Bavaria the women aged from 51 to 55 years alive in 1874 had lived in
the aggregate more than seven million years, while the men of the same
age had lived not so much as six and one-half million.[89] Turquan[90]
gives a table showing the death-rate of centenarians in all France
during a period of twenty years (1866-85). From this it appears that
there died in these years an annual average of 73 centenarians, of
whom 27 were men and 46 women. In only one year of the twenty did the
deaths of men exceed those of women. Lombroso and Ferrero have shown
that between 1870 and 1879 the inhabitants of the prisons and convict
establishments in Italy who were over 60 years of age showed a
percentage of 4.3 among the women, and 3.2 among the men, although the
number of men condemned to prison for long periods is far greater than
among women.
Women are not only longer-lived than men, but have greater
powers of resistance to misfortune and deep grief.
This is a well-known law, which in the case of the female
criminal seems almost exaggerated, so remarkable is her
longevity and the toughness with which she endures the
hardships, even the prolonged hardships, of prison life.... I
know some denizens of female prisons who have reached the
age of 90, having lived within those walls since they were 29
without any grave injury to health.[91]
Woman's resistance to death is thus more marked at the two extremes
of life, infancy and old age, the periods in which her anabolism is
uninterrupted. Menstruation, reproduction, and lactation are at once
the cause of an anabolic surplus and the means of getting rid of it.
At the extremes of life no demand of this kind is made on woman,
and her anabolic nature expresses itself at these times in greater
resistance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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