Gender: Modern Women Not as Shapely as They like to Think

In England ...

The average hip size for all the women polled was 36in, and the average waist size was 30in.

Experts said this confirmed the previously documented move away from the classic hourglass figure of the 1950s, when a woman's average waist size was 27.5in and her hips 39in, giving a much more curvaceous silhouette.

Scientists have found that working women tend to carry fat around their stomachs, rather than their hips.

When we are stressed the body releases extra energy in the form of fat and glucose, to prepare us for the "fight or flight" mechanism, but unless you do something physical it is redeposited as fat around the middle of your body.

Scientists who study waist-to-hip ratios — the waist measurement divided by the hip measurement — say a ratio of 0.7, enjoyed by women such as Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor at her peak, is most likely to be attractive to the opposite sex.

In the past women were more likely to wear boned corsetry to manipulate their weight distribution and this may be why the figures from the 1950s show such a drastically small waist.

For more, see Modern Women Not as Shapely as They like to Think by Patrick Sawer, February 19, 2011 at The Telegraph.