Competitiveness & Aggression in Women

Reader Warning:  Due to the statistical nature of this post it reads a little dry.  Sorry, I'll try to be more clever next time.  Happy Reading!  : )

Whether it’s elementary school girls talking about who has cooties, high school girls criticizing what another girl wore to school on a certain day, or the shock that your neighbor allows her kids to engage in certain behaviors; let’s face it, women like to gossip.  The Social Issues Research Center says that gossip accounts for 67% of women’s conversations.  In general women talk about other people to feel close to one another as they discuss others and validate each other.  I think women also get some sense of power and/or superiority through gossip.  I believe women are competitive and aggressive in their own rite and this is one way they express it.  This is not just for adult females either; gossip and bullying begins with very young girls.  Words can hurt; I think we’ve all experienced that growing up and even in our adult life.  There is now cyberbullying and even a new term; bullycide which is a suicide as a result of bullying.  

Obviously, bullying of any kind (gossip, teasing, exclusion and pranks), whether at school or work is happening and has horrible consequences; suicide being the most extreme of them.  As cited on bullyingstatistics.org, “New bullying statistics 2010 are reporting that there is a strong connection between bullying, being bullied and suicide, according to a new study from the Yale School of Medicine. Suicide rates are continuing to grow among adolescents, and have grown more than 50 percent in the past 30 years. “ 

Besides words, bullying can be any form of physical violence as well, such as pushing, hitting, and even gang-style beatings.  Here are just a few statistics; it’s reported that there are about 282,000 students attacked each month, 56% of public school students have witnessed a bullying crime, and 1 in every 10 students drops out or changes schools due to bullying.  Here are some specific statistics about girls; every 7 minutes a girl is getting bullied, and when bullying does occur, 85% of the time no one intervenes. 

The number of female juvenile arrests doubled between 1989 and 1993.  Female juvenile arrests for violent crimes specifically increased 55% for that same time period.  Between 1999 and 2003, aggravated assault arrest statistics decreased by 17% for girls but simple assault increased by 12%.

I don’t think that bullying stops with kids and teenagers.  In fact, I would argue that in some cases, bullying may escalate and evolve as these girls and teenagers age.  I think the statistics for women being arrested supports my position.  The FBI reported in 2007 that, “… 2.4 million women were arrested in 2006, accounting for nearly a quarter of all arrests in the U.S. Nationwide, the number of women arrested increased by 4% from 1997 to 2006. During the same ten-year period, the number of men arrested decreased by 7.1%.”  So, basically, bullying, juvenile arrest rates, and adult female arrest rates are increasing.  Specifically, the arrest rate for simple assault is increasing among females.

I don’t think it’s a hard sell to convince readers that violence among females is rising; if you want to get more depressed or freaked out as a parent you can always do a YouTube search and watch videos of teenage girls gang-beating other girls on film.  Pretty sick.  However, there are some good and even more important statistics to keep in mind; after school activities in the community, sports, parental involvement, and church help keep kids out of trouble.  “Involvement in church and nonschool activities, for both young men and women, significantly protected them from serious delinquent behavior, which includes fighting, carrying a weapon or violence. However, it did not protect them from risky behavior, such as drinking, smoking or drunk driving.”

This is true for both boy and girls but what more recent studies have shown that sports have more of an impact on girls than boys.  “While it was previously believed that participation in sports would decrease delinquency in boys, it actually did not have a significant protective effect. However, the reverse was true for girls, “whose risk for delinquent behavior was reduced significantly if they took part in sports.”    

Simply put, girls who have involved parents, participate in activities outside of school; specifically sports, are less violent and don’t participate in risky behavior.   Isn’t this what every parent would want for his/her daughters?  A question I wondered about that none of the research specifically addressed was why?  Why do sports help girls be less violent?  Well, I think the answer is pretty obvious; they are just as competitive and aggressive as ever, but they vent their competitiveness and aggression in a healthy way.  Being competitive is not a bad thing by itself.  Neither is aggression.  It’s just how you choose to use and vent that competitiveness and aggression. 

I wish I had hard research to say that Crossfit specifically is a superior outlet for girls and women over other sports – maybe somebody should conduct those studies – but it’s definitely in the category of a competitive sport.  It’s just further evidence that Crossfit doesn’t just benefit the physical, but mental and even behavioral issues as well.  I even find Crossfit therapeutic; I can’t possibly think about my cruddy day when all I can focus on is the workout at hand.  When my body is screaming for every attention my brain can fathom, I forget about everything else.  Oddly, it is relaxing and afterwards, I’m all unwound. 

I openly admit I am biased to Crossfit because I do see it as a superior sport.  I think this is because Crossfit focuses on performance, not appearance and addresses all 10 components of fitness compared to other sports.  Crossfit also simply gets results, period.  Now however, I would add that it’s possible that Crossfit makes women nicer since it’s an extremely healthy way to express competitiveness and aggression.  There's got to be a clever Crossfit slogan somewhere in there!