Sister and brother publications, Women and Men’s Health, asked readers to take part in a survey that would hopefully tap in to what made them tick together…and apart. Relationships, health, exercise routines and career were put under the microscope in the Battle of the Sexes survey. The results are revealed in the April issues of the magazines. Over 1 000 readers took part in the survey.
“Once again, a power couple collaboration with Women’s Health has helped us gain unique insight into what women think. But rather than just highlight the differences between the sexes, we turned the results of the poll around to give readers tips on how to improve every aspect of their lives,” said Men’s Health Editor, Jason Brown.
The Battle of the Sexes has given the magazines an interesting theme for the month, besides decoding the behaviour of each. Women’s Health’s feature Survival of the Fittest discovers secrets of some of South Africa’s fittest couples, including Vanessa Haywood and Ryan Sandes. Men’s Health’s ‘Sex With Aliens: Women Explained’ exposes some of the juiciest insights from the survey.
Battle of the Sexes results:
The greatest differences between men and women:
· 82% Number of female respondents who consider online flirting to be cheating, compared with 64% of men
· 42% Number of male respondents who said they would agree to a shared bank account, compared to 34% of women
· 25% Number of male respondents who admitted to cheating, compared to 15% of women
· 41% Number of men who admitted watching porn was the biggest secret they would keep from their partner
· 33% Number of female respondents who said that concealing the number of ex partners is the biggest secret they’d keep from their partner
Some relationship facts:
· Men were more likely to say I love you within the first two weeks (15% after two weeks as opposed to 6% for women).
· Men consider marriage more essential (62.1%) with a long-term partner than do women (55.8%)
· When asked what the respondent would not give up for their partners the highest responses were: Females: Independence (60%), Kids (49.9%), Friends (39%) ; Males: Kids (38%), Career (37.4), Independence (35.4%)
· 25% Number of male respondents who admitted to cheating, compared to 15% of women, However men were also more likely to confess their infidelity than women.
· When asked what was the biggest thing couples fought about, women rate chores the highest point of conflict, and men said spending time with his friends/her with her friends was the biggest cause of fights.
· 32% of men say it’s ok to tell a white lie about online activities, as opposed to 21.1% of women
· When asked what secrets they would keep from their partners both women and men would try conceal number of ex partners, and men said they would also lie about their contact with their exes and watching porn, whilst women considered their weight as well as debt should stay under wraps.
Career/ Money
· The general consensus is that the man makes more money in the relationship, however more men tend to rate this about their selves than do their partners.
· When asked who has bigger savings the men considered themselves to have quite a bit more money put away than the women considered them to.
· When asked what men and women were most likely to splurge on both answered travel, and men said tech & gadgets were important, and women said property/home renovations would be splurge worthy.
· 60 % of men said they wished their partners would spend less on clothes whereas women said the same for alcohol and tech & gadgets for their partners.
· More men seem to be more open to the idea of sharing a bank with their partners than were women.
· When it comes to asking for a raise at work, 58.4% of men claimed to ask for a raise in the last year as opposed to 63.9% of women.
Health
· The most common favourite meal for women is salad (34% of respondents)
· 60% of men did not take a sick day last year, as opposed to 47% of women.
· Men are not as clueless about the food they eat with 75% of respondents checking food labels (79% for women)
· 57% of men feel it is ok to tell a white lie about his partners cooking, and 53% about her weight.
· 47% of men and 49% of women say they take supplements
· 10% of women had lost count how many diets they have been on in the last year as opposed to 2.9% of men.
· 16% of men admit to counting kilojoules, and 27.8% of women
· Both men and women seem to be fairly equal when it comes to knowing their cholesterol levels, but this is still less than half of respondents
· 15% of men say that one of the biggest compromises they have made for their partner was changing their diets and 17% of women said the same. Funnily enough 30% percent of men said they would not give meat up for their partner.