This morning I woke up about sunrise and was in a room with the window open. It had been raining on and off, but had cleared off, and golfers had started out on the course. It suddenly started raining again, and there was thunder off in the distance. The golf course hadn't sounded the inclement weather horn yet, but a number of carts turned back to head for the clubhouse to wait out the storm. I then heard (a male voice) yell "I'm invincible!". Which made me wonder whether it might be something in the male culture, and not the anatomy, that makes them more susceptible to lightning.
This theory might be more difficult to prove, but here's some ideas:
- Men may be less likely to look for safety when bad weather starts. Maybe. It's been true in my life, at least :) And it was certainly true of the guy who thought he was invincible!
- Men may be more likely to be in situations where they would be threatened by lightning. Again, I couldn't find many stats, but many hobbies that I can think of where lightning would be a factor are dominated by men (golf, camping, fishing, hunting).
- A combination of the above two, men may be more likely to be in professions where they are susceptible to lightning and also don't have as much flexibility in determining when to come in from inclement weather.
- I found a number of sites, like this one, that stated that men are more likely than women to be killed or injured from a lightning strike. From that I assume that men are being struck by lightning more often than women (and not that they are being struck equally, but that the women are somehow more resilient to the strike).
- I was not able to find much information on what the victims were doing prior to the strike, but did find one site that indicated the majority were 'children and young men aged 10-35 engaged in outdoor recreation and work activities outside'. Which I think confirms my assumption. But there's not corresponding data on the site, and I couldn't find another site to corroborate it.
- I also did not find any information on why male bodies would attract more lightning than female bodies (like maybe testosterone).