Comment

You got any stats on that? Because I feel like gender-myths shouldn’t be propagated one way or the other when they’re not true.

Because I can’t find stuff to support your statement.

What I do find is Men are more accurate than women in aiming at targets in both near space and extrapersonal space

Men outperformed women on both the extrapersonal aiming tasks, and women outperformed men on the task of fine motor skill. However, a male advantage was observed for one of the aiming tasks performed in near space, suggesting that the male advantage for aiming accuracy does not result from proximity

But then again also

Close women, distant men: line bisection reveals sex-dimorphic patterns of visuomotor performance in near and far space

The mid-points of a series of lines which were positioned both within hand-reach (near space) and beyond hand-reach (far space) were estimated by 24 women and 24 men. When using a laser pointer to perform estimations, women were more accurate in the near condition than the far, whereas men were more accurate in the far condition than the near. When using a stick pointer for the far condition, women were more accurate than when using the laser, whereas men were more accurate using the laser pointer than the stick for the far condition. There was no difference between near and far accuracy scores for either sex using the stick. These results suggest that use of a tool which provides proprioceptive feedback causes the brain to remap far-space stimuli as if situated in near space.

Being amazing at shooting is more an individual trait than anything tied strictly to sex.

I’m not saying women aren’t better marksmen, I’ve heard that as well. But I served with a bunch and none of them were especially crack shots. They weren’t especially bad either. I never thought it’s got that much to do with genes or hormones, really. So I’d be interested to see if there is science showing women really are better on average.

source

Sort:hotnew top

ThunderQueen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I have no real source. Just personal anecdotes and what ive been told. Afaik, its not a biological avantage. Women just tend to be more relaxed and less prone to showing off which shows up as an uptick of performance in fields where precision is important

source
- Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yet I’ve shot with a lot of women. Like a literal army’s worth. There was no difference, except perhaps one leaning to men having the advantage, but I don’t see a causation other than Finnish dad’s preferring to teach their sons over their daughters.
  
  However the differences I did see weren’t accounted for by any gender difference and the women certainly weren’t that much worse. I’d say the larger difference was city-folk vs people’s who grew up rural. Rural people’s could shoot, whatever they happened to have between their legs, (as well as use axes without putting their own ears at risk,) and city-folk were, well, less-able. Less trained would probably be the correct choice of words.
  
  As I grew up rural, my dad made me shoot my first shotgun and .308 and an officer’s side-arm (which for my great-grandpa was a tiiiiiiny little pistol you couldn’t hit jack shit with from >10 yards) at the ripe age of 12 and my I shot my first AR at 13, I was fair bit more trained than most of the people I went to the army with.
  
  But of those I did shoot with, I just wouldn’t say women are better marksmen. I know it’s a common myth, because the Soviets had female snipers. But that’s just it. It’s myth. Much like “carrots make you able to see in the dark.” It’s not straight up untrue, it’s just not true either.
  
  source
  - ThunderQueen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Well me and the girls are better shots than any of the guys we shoot with but fair enough lmao
    
    source
    Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    And I believe you are. But that doesn’t mean women are better at shooting than men. It just means you are good at it.
    
    source
frog_brawler@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
You didn’t ask me, but I’ve got something: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21390957/

I’ve understood that Women make better surgeons as well; for the exact same reason. Steadier hand.

source
- Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  No, I didn’t ask you specifically, but I asked the internet in general and you’re a part of it, so technically yeah I sort of asked you as well. The wider audience.
  
  Thanks for the link.
  
  “At low force levels” could be further specified, because I’d like to note that most weapons actually weigh a bit. Ofc if you’re a sniper, you’re looking for a spot where you can use something to hold your weapon instead of using muscles for a static hold.
  
  My point is that while that’s a difference, yeah, I don’t think it’s enough to conclude women are better marksmen, as are neither of the studies I linked. Thanks anyway.
  
  source