The "Mysterious" Physicality of Women

[Recusant]

The article is fairly polite about it, but it's well known that medicine particularly and science generally have tended to focus on the male when it comes to investigation, often ignoring the female. There is a relatively benign reason for this, and a definitely less benign reason. As I understand it, for a long time it was assumed that if we learned something about the male body, it would almost certainly apply to the female body.

But what about the differences between the two? That's where the less benign reason reveals itself. Western civilization, as with many cultures, has historically valued men more than women (and to a great extent still does). There was less prestige associated with learning about women, for instance.

Not to say that the frontiers of knowledge described in the article would have all been conquered absent the disparity describe above, but I'm pretty sure it's relevant.
                         
"International Women's Day: The Evolutionary Mysteries of The Female Body" | ScienceAlert

Evolutionary theory has revolutionized the way we understand humans – yet more than a century after Darwin's ideas reshaped biology, the female form of our species remains largely a mystery.

Compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, human women are downright exceptional, and scientists are still trying to figure out why. While every body is different, many women's lives are shaped by these unique features of female anatomy.

Although sex and gender are distinct concepts, much of the science surrounding women's bodies focuses on the reproductive biology associated with the female sex – the physiology behind pregnancy, menstruation, and menopause.

Some researchers now argue that these evolutionary quirks aren't just side effects of human evolution – they may be crucial forces that helped shape our very species.

From the very start, humans are confronted with an unusually dangerous prospect: childbirth. Compared to other primates, humans go through labor for an astonishingly long time (for many hours or even days), and complications and risks are common.

Our species' birth canal is seriously twisted, which means that during a vaginal birth, a baby's head needs to turn nearly 90 degrees, like slipping a foot into a boot. Often, a mother needs help from others to give birth.

While it's difficult to compare all of human history to life in the modern world, obstructed labor is estimated to be directly responsible for up to 30 percent of maternal morbidity in developing countries today.

Why human birth comes at such great risk to the mother remains a mystery.

[Continues, with more mysteries . . .]