Are Women More Sensitive to Cold Than Men?

Photo by Clyktose/Reddit 

Ah summer. Outdoor concerts, backyard barbecues, tan lines … and a mild case of hypothermia at the office.

Every year around this time many of us resign ourselves to the fact that no matter how sunny or sauna-like it is outside, we’ll be suffering through the arctic air of our office building’s HVAC system for eight hours a day.

And it’s usually the women who hide forbidden space heaters under their desks and plead with building maintenance to ease up on the A/C. It’s a familiar sight that often plays out in the dead of summer: Women covered up with cardigans and scarves while their male co-workers have their desk fans turned on.

“I have a sweatshirt and a sweater on my chair,” Rebecca Samson, 37, who works as an information specialist in a New York City office, told Yahoo Health. “I dress for the weather outside – short sleeves, tank tops – but then I typically put on a sweatshirt for the office,” she said, expressing a common sartorial challenge women face during summer months. According to Samson, not every one of her female colleagues feel cold, but “I've never heard any guys complain.”

Gender-temperature wars

So are women physiologically less tolerant of the cold than men? Are females' hands and feet preternaturally colder than the rest of the bodies? Do men prefer colder temperatures? (Should “summer sweaters” really be a thing?)

Several studies suggest that there is, indeed, a gender divide when it comes to temperature. According to a 2011 analysis of previous studies on this subject, titled “Thermal comfort and gender,” more than half of lab and field studies found that women are more likely than men to “express thermal dissatisfaction,” and that women are more sensitive to cooler conditions.

There are a handful of factors that play into how people experience cold, including body type and amount of fat and muscle. Others are more obvious, like how close someone sits to vents and windows, or how much clothing they wear. Of course, compared with men’s button-down shirts and jackets, the clothing many women wear in summer tends to be lighter. That can often leave cold-sensitive areas like the back of the neck and ankles bare, Alan Hedge, a professor at Cornell University’s Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, who focuses on issues of workplace design as it affects workers’ health, comfort, and productivity, told Yahoo Health.

A 1998 University of Utah study found that women tend to have slightly higher core temperatures than men (97.8 degrees F vs. 97.4), but their hands are colder – researchers said women’s mean hand temperature was 87.2 degrees, compared with 90.0 degrees for the men.

Other reasons behind the gender difference have to do with body type, added Hedge. Women typically have more fat and less muscle mass than men – and muscles generate heat. Women are also usually smaller (and thinner) – and heat is gained and lost faster when bodies have a larger surface area-to-volume ratio.

Is there an "ideal" temperature?

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), a group that works on building systems and energy efficiency, established an acceptable range for optimal “thermal comfort.” The range includes factors like season, moisture in the air, air-flow velocities, occupant activity and clothing. ASHRAE recommends indoor temperatures of 74 to 78 degrees in summer, and 70 to 74 degrees in winter. (The requirement for any building is ultimately enforced by local authorities and established by local building codes.)

Seventy-four or 75 degrees sounds cozy, right? But chances are your office is a bit frostier than that. A 2009 EPA study found that buildings were overcooled in the summer, with actual temperature ranges lower than ASHRAE’s recommendations, according to Yongchao Zhai, a fellow at the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley.

Zhai said that commercial buildings also have design and operational flaws that often lead to uncomfortable thermal conditions. There are typically no operable windows in sealed office buildings, and their heating and cooling systems are designed to handle severe weather, he said, so they end up being “oversized.”

Just like those sweaters …