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Muscular strength can be defined as force production measured in a specific context. Based on small data sets, it is reported that men have 48% and 34% greater strength than women in the upper and lower body muscles, respectively. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00235103
However, no differences in strength between men and women are seen when normalized for muscle cross-sectional area. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22308163/
Additionally, men and women exhibit similar relative responses to resistance training, with no gender-specific responses noted after 10-weeks of resistance training. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756754/
A number of other gender-independent factors contribute to the regulation of adult muscle mass, including genetics, race, adiposity, training, diet, and birth order. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25851205/
For example, data from twin studies suggests up to 50% to 60% of the difference in muscle mass and strength may be due to genetic factors without clear gender influences. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18271028/
Said differently, the amount of muscle mass and strength displayed by an individual may be influenced by non-sex genetics to a level that rivals or exceeds the influence of gender.
Muscular power can be defined as high-velocity force production. As described above, men tend to be taller, heavier, and carry more muscle and less body fat than women. Despite men having more muscle mass however,..
there does not appear to be any difference in average muscle fiber type composition (e.g. Type I- and Type II fibers) between genders. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00235103
Type I muscle fibers are classically referred to as “slow-twitch” muscle fibers and tend to produce low amounts of force for long periods of time, e.g. they are very fatigue resistant. In contrast,..
Type II muscle fibers, or “fast-twitch” muscle fibers, tend to produce high levels of force for short periods of time and are tend to fatigue quickly.
Interestingly, muscle fiber type composition seems to be more strongly correlated with training history and athlete caliber than gender.
For example, women who compete in Olympic weightlifting at the World or Olympic level were found to have 71% fast-twitch type IIa fibers compared to the 63% seen in men competing at the National level.
While absolute power output appears to be greater in men in general, when we normalize existing power data for fat-free mass and...
fat-free cross-sectional area (approximating the amount of skeletal muscle mass) there are few, if any, gender-specific differences in power.
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/shades-of-gray-sex-gender-and-fairness-in-sport/
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/shades-of-gray-sex-gender-and-fairness-in-sport/
For example, Slawinski et al. looked at peak acceleration after 1 second in 100 world-class sprinters (50 women and 50 men). After normalizing for body mass, men and women had approximately the same peak acceleration power. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26644061/
Additional evidence from researchers in Spain provides insight here: 155 college-aged, untrained individuals (123 men and 32 women)tested their anaerobic power output using a Wingate cycling test,..
..which showed no differences between men and women when normalized for fat-free mass. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18084774/
