Who Handles Breakups Better: Men or Women?

Battle of the Sexes
Posted by Maggie McGee for BounceBack.com

A tough breakup is excruciatingly tough to handle for both men and women, but who bounces back easier and faster?

1. Dealing With Emotions

Men tend to hide their pain. In general, men bottle up their emotions. Rarely does one see a man crying, watching romantic comedies, and pouring his soul out to a friend. Bottling up emotions will make it harder in the long run to get over the breakup. Therefore, emotionally, women take the cake. Women tend to let it all out (maybe too much out sometimes), but this is part of the healing process. Talking it out and releasing your emotions is helpful in coping with a breakup.

Related: 5 Ways to Bounce Back After a Breakup

2. Who Moves on Faster

After a breakup, men seem to move on faster. A man might put on a front, the good old "I'll show her" attitude, and can be seen guzzling beers out at a bar, and talking to a new woman. Therefore, men tend to appear to be moving on faster, but in correlation to their emotions, they might just be hiding their pain and putting on a show to make it seem as if they are over the breakup.

Women, in general, do not move on as quickly as men, because women tend to over think, and overanalyze. Women will be devastated for a while, but tend to slowly get over it. Studies show that men are actually more likely to fall into a depression after a breakup, illustrating that men, even though they may appear to have moved on, internalize and are more likely to hold on to the negative emotions of the breakup.

3. Post-Breakup Communication

Women openly obsess about their exes (Me, being one of them) and keep their ex's number in their phones, texting and possibly still calling him or her. The majority of men will act like their ex doesn't exist and will promptly delete his or her phone number. Even on social networks, men are more likely to delete an ex from the site, while women use networks such as Facebook to keep tabs on their past lovers.

It is hard to determine which sex wins in this category because both post-breakup strategies are not good for the healing process in the long run. Overall, I have to say that men win because deleting a number from a cell phone proves that they are trying to move on.


The points made in this article are from observations, as well as research. Even though each person is totally different and handles break ups differently, these generalizations lead to the answer that: Women, in general, handle breakups better and come out with a 2/3 victory.

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