"Girls and women are still trained as 'smaller men' due to a lack of exercise science covering female bodies. Combine that with the fact that girls largely don't engage in certain types of sports altogether - like football and wrestling (until very recently) - due to assumptions about what girls can and should do physically, and we arrive at a sports landscape with less competition, lower stakes, poorer training and less financial and moral support"

This was a great and fascinating read. Women are supposedly weaker but what sort of standards are we measuring women against? Why are men the gold standard for comparison?

Are men really stronger when most of the research that has been done in sports is in men?
- " Historically, just 6 percent of sports research has looked at female bodies exclusively"

Why are women better at endurance sports?
- Fat keeps women going when the carb supply drops off. That's obviously useful in any activity where muscles need power over the long haul"

If you want to ponder and answer these questions then you want to pick up and read this book!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me this arc :)
As a fan of women’s sports and medical nonfiction, this book was right up my alley. While super packed with citations, it still feels like a quick read (the last 25% is acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, etc) the book does a good job of combining research data, interviews with experts, and interviews with athletes, both professional and recreational.
I definitely recommend this book!
4 stars

As an athletic girl, it's been my experience, like so many others, to be not taken seriously, bullied out of a sport or sporting event, and constantly told by men that I am less, weaker, and do not belong. Imagine my delight and excitement when I received the ARC of this book. Studies and findings that highlight the many ways the female human body is extraordinary and well suited to so many things it's constantly being cited as ‘too weak’ for. Our longevity, fantastic immunities, and durability! Additionally, everything is wonderfully cited so that you can peruse at the end for further reading on topics that especially interest you.

I am renewed with hope for the steps we are taking to more fully learn how our bodies differ in regards to how medication and healthcare work for us! I appreciated this book for the many examples provided of women in sports of all kinds to illustrate its points.

This book was well researched and very easy to read. Every female should read this book as well as anyone who sees females professionally as a healthcare provider or as a female in their life. If you love your wife, you love your daughter you love your sister read this book.

Interesting at times, but the writing itself was not always engaging to me

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

Thank you to NetGalley, Basic Books, and Seal Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

In kindergarten, I remember trying to play basketball with boys at recess. I was a head taller than all of them, and had been playing basketball since I could walk (legacy child with two hooper parents). I remember when they laughed at me and said girls didn’t play basketball. I remember when a boy dumped me because I could lift more than him. I remember when, on a first date, I beat a boy playing basketball one on one and never heard from him again afterwards. I remember being a D1 hooper (screw you recess boys I got paid to hoop for 5 years) and seeing empty stands and busting my ass for hours on the daily only to have intramural boys tell me they could probably beat me at literally everything (they couldn’t).

Needless to say, I was primed to read this, and I loved every second of it

This was a delightfully readable, well researched, nonfiction work on the female body and the nuances of its strengths.

I just think Vartan is nailing this on so many levels.
-great engaging writing
-deeply researched (536 sources) and verifiable claims
(ALSO acknowledging when the research isn’t solid yet!!! So good)
(Except for using “blue-zone” research as fact since I was under the impression that has largely been debunked…?)
-balances (really the best I’ve seen this done) gender identity with biological sex in an inclusive and nuanced way. Most researchers say “trans people are legit but for science I’m just gonna talk about the binary” and Vartan really pushed back against that in interesting ways.
-balanced compelling narrative with research making this really easy to flow through
-a lil spicy and snarky when need be

My fav moments include:
-revolutionary looks into the menstrual cycle (literally what????)
-how sick (as in awesome) the uterine lining is
-learning how many sports used to be coed until women started winning in them
-KORFBALL!!!!

This feels like a ~finally~ for someone who has been involved in the female athletics world for decades. The research is finally catching up to what we women know. Women are strong as hell, and how we define strength has too often been framed by what men think and what men can do.

The Stronger Sex by Starre Vartan is a powerful, myth busting deep dive into the resilience, endurance, and undeniable strength of women’s bodies. For too long, society has equated physical strength with brute force, dismissing the biological and physiological advantages that make women uniquely powerful. Vartan shatters these outdated notions, weaving together cutting edge research, expert interviews, and compelling real life stories to prove that when it comes to endurance, pain tolerance, immunity, and even longevity, women most certainly come out on top.

As a woman, I was immediately drawn to this book because I know we are powerful, but seeing the science laid out so clearly was both validating and empowering. I felt this same surge of confidence watching the Olympics this past summer—seeing female athletes dominate, push boundaries, and prove time and time again that we are the strongest. That feeling has stuck with me, and The Stronger Sex reinforced it even more. Reading this book made me want to stand a little taller, embrace the strength I already know I have, and celebrate the incredible capabilities of women everywhere.

One of the book’s biggest strengths is how it balances hard science with engaging storytelling. Vartan’s interviews with researchers across disciplines—from sports science to anthropology—add weight to her arguments, while firsthand accounts from athletes, firefighters, and adventurers bring the data to life. Whether she’s discussing the science behind pain tolerance, the adaptability of female bodies, or the history of why these strengths have been overlooked, Vartan makes a compelling case that strength isn’t just about muscle mass, but how it’s about survival, resilience, and adaptation.

This isn’t a “battle of the sexes” book; it’s a celebration of what makes women’s bodies extraordinary. Instead of pitting men and women against each other, The Stronger Sex challenges outdated ideas and uplifts a more inclusive, science backed definition of strength. Whether you’re an athlete, a science enthusiast, or simply someone who’s tired of hearing that women are the "weaker sex," this book is an empowering and eye opening read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Starre Vartan, and Seal Press for the eARC of this book.