Dp and I had an interesting discussion this evening, and I'm curious as to whether there's a definitive answer or not.
I said that i thought the standard of women's sport had increased significantly more over the past 30-40 years, coinciding with the rise in equality, increased funding and greater encouragement of young players. I think that women's sports will eventually become as watchable as men's although maybe in different ways, eg football played more tactically and less "hoofing the ball up the field" (dp's description)
He thinks that women's sport has improved at the same rate as men's in that time. He maintains that women will never be better than men because most popular sports are designed to test those physical attributes that men are genetically predisposed towards. Women are better dancers, gymnasts etc, men are better athletes, for example.
We both agree that sport in general has improved, due to investment, equipment and nutrition.
Neither of us holds the view that Men are better than Women full stop. Just that the most popular sports eg: football, rugby, athletics were designed by men to test male strength using muscles evolved to be assisted by testosterone.
If i had the software, I'd plot a graph showing Olympic Records for 100m over the last 30 years and hopefully prove that, despite an upward trend by both genders, the women are narrowing the gap.
Opinions, please!