Cavanagh and graduate student Roshna E. Wunderlich examined data on the anatomy of men's and women's feet. Their findings are reported in the April issue of the American College of Sports Medicine journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. It's the first journal article to publicly list sex differences in feet, Cavanagh said. The data came from an Army examination of the feet of 293 men and 491 women. While the data on each sex were examined separately, and used to help design Army boots, differences between the sexes were not analyzed before, the report said.
Women have smaller feet than men - a fact that's long been known.
But even holding foot length constant, statistically giving men and women the same shoe size, there were anatomical differences, the researchers found. Women have thicker ankles and calves, higher arches and narrower heels, Cavanagh said. That is pretty much, if you have a narrow-fitting ski boot. Also, women's ankles are about one-quarter inch closer to the ground, and men's big toes are a little thicker, Cavanagh said. Such differences in anatomy could throw off the fit even in a shoe that is the right size based on length, but a woman might not realize what the problem was, Cavanagh said.