It seems the estrogen for women equates what the male sex hormone testosterone does in the body and in the mind as far as creating feelings of competition and rivalry.  We all know how we say that men are more competitive by nature than women, and that the competitive hormone responsible for their go get ‘em and kill ‘em attitudes in life is testosterone, which also is said to fuel agression in men, and even may have a role in that in women as well since women do have small amounts of testosterone as well in their bodies, and vice versa for men when it comes to estrogen. 

How do researchers know that estrogen plays a role in competition and the drive to win in women?  Well, like men, they’ve tested women’s estrogen levels after they’ve won something of a competitive nature and found that their estrogen levels pretty much went through the roof, and also fell significantly when they lost a competitive event, proving that estrogen is the same role player for the need to win and competition in men as testosterone is for the male.

So, ladies, guess we’re a lot more biologically driven to succeed and win in competitive sports and game than we realized, eh?  This doesn’t surprise me, and if I were to throw a bit of an evolutionary theory out there of my own, I’d say women these days are probably a lot more competitive as well because we’ve gained such independence and freedom as of late, considering we used to play a more docile and “quiet” role way back when. 

We now have jobs and careers and rear families, so our senses of competition and accomplishment is every bit as needed as it is in a man, if not more, since we still feel we need to prove something in many situations, which is an unfortunate biproduct of years of repression.  The research recently conducted on estrogen’s role in power and dominance need showed that women with more of a power need and thoughts of dominance and winning happened to also have higher overall levels of estrogen. 

Are we going to have to come up with a term for an “alpha female” now?   

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