Evo psyc is always bullshit, so what else could be causing this?
Two minutes of thinking later... and now I am suddenly getting extremely worried about teen and earlier eating habits among women.
Caloric deficits negatively impact height and a slew of other outcomes. To a first approximation, noone in the first world is short of calories growing up due to inability to get enough food.
But there is immense social pressure on women to be thin. Anorexia skews female to a very extreme degree.
It's entirely, and frighteningly, plausible that women are diverging in height because they are not eating enough during their teen years. Even short of outright disorder, just not eating their fill when it is available would not only cost them a fair few centimeters of height, but also, and far worse, points of IQ, focus during critical educational years.. Ugh.
This is a very bloody worrying possibility, which needs investigating, and stopping.
Follow the citations: malnourishment stunts male height more than female.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.