Tall women with masculine traits seldom have children
10/13/2005 11:59
Tall women have fewer children because it is difficult for them to find lifetime
partners

Tall women are busy with making good careers and have fewer children, but this
is not explained with their failure to find good partners. Researchers Denis
Deady of Stirling University and Miriam Law-Smith from St.Andrew's University
have arrived at a conclusion that the taller a woman the weaker her motherly
instinct. Results of their researches prove that taller women highlight
successful career and ignore childbirth than women of medium height.

The researchers have also estimated that tall women would like to have fewer
children and usually give birth to the first baby at their mature age. At the
same time, these women are more career-minded and are more competitive. The
psychologists published the results of their research in Personality and
Individual Differences after they questioned 1,220 women where 679 women were at
the age of 20-29 and 541 women over 45. The average height of the questioned
women made up slightly over 165 cm while the average height of a British woman
is 162 cm.

The researchers wanted to find any connection between height that is determined
with sex hormones and psychological peculiarities of women. Results of the
research suggest that there is some connection. It is generally believed that
tall women have fewer children because it is difficult for them to find
partners. But the researchers have refuted the opinion. They state that tall
women have much testosterone, the masculine sex hormone that determines their
masculine traits such as energy, emulative spirit and ambitiousness. The
researchers also wanted to find out what importance career rise has for tall
women.

Law-Smith, 27, 170 cm in height and having no children, says that the research
does not insist that tall women are ambitious while short women care only about
having children.

The research has demonstrated that the testosterone level in saliva is connected
with the motherly instinct. The higher the testosterone level, the weaker are
the motherly instinct of a woman and her reproductive ambitions.

Many of successful women are rather tall. Fashion model Jerry Hall (182 cm) made
her wonderful career thanks to the tall height. "At the age of 12, I was the
tallest at school and did not like it. Later, I realized it was my advantage.
Whatever I put on, it always looks effective," the model says. She has four
children.

Actress Saffron Burrows (182 cm), 32, has no children, was rejected a role in
Grange Hill because of her tall height.

Tennis star Lindsay Davenport, 187 cm, once complained that "it is not easy to
be that tall". But the tall height helps her achieve success in tennis. The
29-year-old tennis player has no children but says she wants to have many.

Politician Janet Reno, 184 cm, the former US secretary of justice, once had to
take her shoes off to be able to speak through a microphone during her public
appearance in Florida. The 67-year-old politician has no children.


Read the original in Russian:
http://health.pravda.ru/health/2005/...1027_rost.html (Translated by:
Maria Gousseva)