One conflict that will probably never end is the battle of the thermostat in a space
shared by men and women.
Men are always turning it down, and women are two steps behind them, turning it right
back up again.
Despite theories to the contrary, women are not just being weak or wasteful — there
are scientific reasons why they often find themselves feeling much chillier than the
men in the same room.
Here's the real reason why women are always colder than men.
"Can I turn the heat up?"
"Oh, don't touch the thermostat Meg, your father gets upset."
"Come on, this thing goes up to 90!"
"Who touched the thermostat?"
Colder extremities
Women's icy-cold hands and feet are a long-running joke between married couples at bedtime.
But there's science to back up the phenomenon.
In 1998, researchers at the University of Utah found that though women's core body temperatures
were higher on average, their hands were consistently colder.
And it wasn't a subtle change — the study found women's hands to be about three degrees
cooler than men's.
The reason?
Women’s bodies are better at pulling heat back to their organs to conserve it during
cold conditions.
When that happens, though, their hands and feet pay the price for keeping essential organs
at a warmer running temp.
This explains why, when walking through a cool office, you'll see many more women than
men rubbing their hands together to get warm.
Metabolism
Men naturally have higher metabolic rates than women — a fact that has been annoying
women for ages.
According to a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the metabolism of most men runs
at about 23 percent higher than women's.
This not only means men have an easier time burning fat, it also means they have warmer
bodies.
Metabolism is the way our bodies burn calories for fuel, and in the process, heats our bodies.
Since women’s bodies are burning less fuel, it makes sense that they’d be the chillier
of the species.
Fat to muscle ratio
The way our bodies are composed also has a lot to do with how warm we feel.
In general, men have more muscle and less fat than women.
Since muscle is better at generating heat, this gives men an advantage when it comes
to keeping warm in cool temps.
An article in Popular Science found that while fat does conserve heat, it traps it at the
core, below the skin.
Wait, what?
What this means is that the minute your skin cools down, you’ll cool down — even if
your core is still warm.
Add it to the long list of reasons to get your butt in the gym and pump some iron.
Smaller size
Body size also has a lot to do with how cold a person feels.
On average, men are larger than women, both in height and weight.
Brad Fiero, Faculty member at Pima Community College has an entire lesson plan explaining
how size matters in regulating body temperature.
According to his lesson, since women tend to be smaller, they usually have a larger
surface area to volume ratio.
This means that more heat is lost at a faster speed through their larger surface area.
In relation, that smaller volume means less retained heat.
Menstruation
Women's body temperatures tend to fluctuate throughout their menstrual cycles due to rising
and falling hormone levels.
This means depending on what time of the month it is, they may be even more affected by cool
temperatures than normal.
The situation is exacerbated even more when women take birth control.
One 2001 study published in PubMed.gov found that women who took oral contraceptives had
raised body temperatures during some parts of their cycles, making for an intense and
chilly dip when it went back down.
Different perceptions
Another explanation for women being colder than men is that women feel the cold differently
than men do.
According to professors David W. Niesel and Norbert K. Herzog of Medical Discovery News:
"When women feel cold, they constrict blood vessels near the skin surface to retain core
body heat, but it makes them feel colder."
Basically, our bodies have a totally different physical reaction to the very same temperatures.
Weird.
Because men and women typically react exactly the same in most situations.
Just kidding.
Office temps and attire
Women who spend their days in office buildings tend to find themselves in a rough spot when
it comes to dressing for the weather.
A 2015 study published in Nature Climate Change finally proved what women have known all along
— office temperatures are designed for the comfort of a man.
The study found that most office buildings set their thermostats according to outdated
formulas based on the metabolic rates of men.
This might have made sense decades ago, when most offices were predominantly male, but
it's much less acceptable today, when the number of women equal, if not surpass, the
number of men.
The study also revealed that the longstanding "thermal comfort model" employed by offices
everywhere takes into consideration another factor: clothing insulation levels.
Men wear suits, and suits can make them hot.
Pair the chilly office temps with women's regular office attire of dresses, skirts,
and thin blouses, and you'll begin to understand what all the shivering is about — and why
so many women have heaters under their desks, gloves and scarves stashed in their drawers,
and a heavy cardigan thrown over their chairs.
And this isn't just true in the winter.
In the summer months, the air conditioning usually gets cranked up to near-freezing levels,
blowing theories of energy conservation right out the window.
Suddenly, wearing a suit jacket every day doesn't sound like such a bad idea, does it?
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