Everywhere in the world women live longer than men - but this was not always the case. The available data from rich countries shows that women didn't live longer than men in the 19th century. What's the reason women have a longer life span than men? And why does this benefit increase in the past? We only have a few clues and the evidence is not sufficient to draw an informed conclusion. We are aware that behavioral, biological and environmental factors play a role in the fact that women live longer than men; However, we're not sure how much the influence of each one of these factors is.

We are aware that women live longer than men, Redirecting... regardless of weight. However this is not due to the fact that certain non-biological aspects have changed. What are these factors that have changed? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For example, there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for survivors, ended up raising women's longevity disproportionately.

Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. We can see that all countries are above the line of parity diagonally. This implies that a baby girl in every country can expect to live longer than her brothers.

This chart illustrates that, while there is a female advantage everywhere, cross-country differences can be significant. In Russia women have a longer life span than men, while in Bhutan the difference is less than half an hour.

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In the richer countries, the women's advantage in longevity was not as great.
Let's look at how the female advantage in longevity has changed with time. The chart below shows male and female life expectancies at birth in the US during the period 1790 to 2014. Two distinct features stand out.

First, there is an upward trend: Men as well as women in the US have a much longer life span longer than they did 100 years ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

The gap is increasing: While the female advantage in terms of life expectancy was tiny but it has risen significantly over time.

You can verify that the points you've listed are applicable to other countries that have information by clicking on the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.