Women sweat; and, physically trained women sweat more than untrained females. Furthermore, both groups of women sweat less than their male counterparts. In other words, men are more efficient at sweating than women, according to a study published by Japanese scientists in the October 2010 issue of Experimental Physiology.

Sweating is associated with negative connotations by some; however, it is a necessary response to cool the body and maintain its core temperature.  In athletics, an efficient sweating response gives the participant the advantage. An individual who is able to effectively cool his body will be able to exercise longer.

In the current study, the researchers examined the effects of physical training on the sweating response in four groups of subjects: physically trained females; untrained females; physically trained males; and, untrained males. The subjects performed an hour-long continuous cycling exercise during which the intensity was increased every 20 minutes. The temperature and relative humidity of the exercise testing room was held constant. Recordings of the subjects' body temperature, sweat rate, number of activated sweat glands, and the amount of sweat output per gland were taken at each workload.

Data from the study indicated that both the physically trained male and female participants started sweating at lower mean core body temperatures compared to their unfit counterparts. However, it was found that exercise training in men led to greater improvements in the sweat response to exercise, revealing a gender difference in adaptation to exercise training. Untrained females had the least efficient sweating response to exercise, requiring an achievement of a higher mean body core temperature before the sweat response was elicited.

Reference
Experimental Physiology; October 2010; pp. 1026-32; "Sex Differences in the Effects of Physical Training on Sweat Gland Responses During a Graded Exercise"; T. Ichinose-Kuwahara et al.