Women are now stronger than men

Men have greater physical strength than women. Usain Bolt runs 100 meters in a 9 second range while the 100 meter sprint world record for women is in the 10 second range. In golf, Rory McIlroy who became a new superstar at PGA Championships last year has average drive distance of 301.1 yards. The driving average of top Korean women golfers Shin Ji-ae and Park In-bee is 240-250 yards. The pay scale gap is also wide. Total award at last year`s PGA stood at 260 million dollars, while LPGA`s total award was just 25 percent of it at 49 million dollars.

In sports, Korean women stand. Women athletes have grabbed medals in global sports competitions ranging from LPGA, handball, archery, table tennis and to gunnery. In 1989, Kim Su-nyung won individual and team games at the world archery competition and women`s national handball team won in international competition. As actress Kang Soo-yeon won the best actress award at Moscow film festival the same year, praise for Korean women was plastering all over the media.

A recent report shows Korean female students` physical strength exceeded Korean male students. According to the Education Ministry`s student health and physical strength evaluation, 3.3 percent of 12th grade female students nationwide fell into the top-grade category, while the figure for male students was 2.4 percent. The lowest grade figure for male students was 2.2 percent, higher than female students` 1.3 percent. It may not be proper to say female students have better physical strength than male students since the muscular strength standard is different between men and women. Yet, it can be said that female students are managing physical strength better than male students since the degree of obesity is included in measurement.

Korean female students have already surpassed male students in school records. At last year`s college scholastic ability test average standard score, female students surpassed male students in all subjects excluding mathematics. Gap between Korean male and female students is also being reduced according to the OECD. Half of men even call themselves "vegetarian male." If such trend continues, laws and regulations that are considerate of females may disappear some day.

Editorial Writer Shin Yeon-soo (ysshin@donga.com)