I would disagree, actually. I am a woman who loves powerlifting, actually, and I think that the attitudes of many women in the United States toward lifting heavy things renders them less likely to actually do it. Many women believe they'll bulk up, they'll be unwomanly, men won't like them, women won't like them, it's ok to be physically weak as a woman because you can always get a guy to open the jar/lift the box. As a result, these women don't try to lift heavy things and when you ask them why, they say, "I can't! I am just not good at it." I'm a relatively small woman who got up to a 220-lb deadlift without much effort -- I know active helplessness when I see it.
Your deadlift of 220lbs puts you in the "Advanced" category assuming your body weight is somewhere in the middle. By comparison, I'm deadlifting 360lbs at 185lbs, and that's not even close to "Advanced", I'm well within the "Intermediate" category. For me to be considered advanced, I would have to lift 440lbs, literally twice what you're lifting. That's not a difference explained by psychology.
Besides, we can easily remove the factor you're talking about: there are plenty of sports which don't have the social factors you're describing. There are tons of women who run, for example. In the 60 meter dash, the top male performer, Maurice Greene, finished in 6.39s, more than half a second faster than the top female performer, Irina Privalova, at 6.92s. A half second might not seem like a lot, but consider that Privalova's time wouldn't place her even in the top 25 of male atheletes. [1] Similarly, Paula Radcliffe's 2:15:25 marathon record doesn't wouldn't put her even in the top 10 (I suspect there are hundreds of men whose personal record beats her time, but Wikipedia only shows the top 10).[2]
Do you really think Irina Privalova or Paula Radcliffe is just being actively helpless?
