It says something about our society that Slate‘s “explainer” has to explain why there are so few dunks in women’s basketball:
Leaping ability. The average WNBA player, at just under 6 feet, is about 7 inches shorter than her male counterpart. (Average data for all collegiate female players isn’t available.) Height is only part of the problem, though — plenty of 6-foot male players can dunk. The gender gap in vertical leaping ability is also substantial. The average female college basketball player has a vertical leap of approximately 19 inches, compared with more than 28 inches for the average male player. Since you have to get your fingers about 6 inches above the rim to have a chance at dunking, a female player of average leaping ability would have to be around 6-foot-6 with a standing reach of 8-foot-11”—the approximate measurements for Michael Jordan. (His Airness reportedly had a 48-inch vertical leap.) Few female players are that tall, and none of those giants is an exceptional leaper.
Still, the paucity of dunks during women’s games gives a slightly false impression of female dunking ability. Dunking in practice is somewhat more common, but many coaches advise against attempting a rim-rattler when it counts because of the risk of injury or throwing away an easy deuce. The late Oklahoma State coach Kurt Budke, for example, forbade forward Toni Young from dunking after she broke her arm in three places while completing one during practice in 2011.
The gender gap in leaping ability is wide at every level of competition. According to a 2004 study of medical students and their spouses, the average male in his 20s can out-jump 95 percent of females in the same age group. And men seem to have a peculiar advantage in jumping compared with other athletic pursuits. According to a study of world records for track and field events as of 2004, men had a 15 to 16 percent advantage (PDF) in high jump, long jump, and triple jump. The gender gap in running events was only 10 to 13 percent. (Pole vault featured the biggest difference at 23 percent, but that’s likely because women have participated in that sport at the Olympic level only since 2000.) The difference between men and women has been relatively stable since 1983.
“Pole vault featured the biggest difference at 23 percent, but that’s likely because women have participated in that sport at the Olympic level only since 2000.”
Or maybe not. Pole vaulting requires a lot of upper body strength, and women have only about half the upper body strength of men (according to a Canadian study).
Nothing in the article you quoted surprises me, but it’s good to have scientific data. I used to play coed basketball for fun (as opposed to serious pickup games), and some of the women I played with were NCAA college athletes and I can tell you from personal experience that women are no match for men at basketball. Don’t force me to start in with the “back in the day” anecdotes…