Why do women in general seem to have such low self esteem?

First of all, I know it’s never right to generalize, but going on my own personal observations and opinion, I feel like I have to generalize a bit on this one.

I know that there are some very confident and strong women out there that think very highly of themselves, and enjoy being who they are. In fact I suspect most of the women on this site probably fall in to that category. However, lately I have been thinking more and more, that most women have self esteem problems.

I see talk shows online, with women who have been choked, spat on, slapped and generally abused by a partner, and insist on staying with them. I am not a mind reader, but when I look at them, I can’t help but feel that they are staying with these assholes, because deep down they feel they are too fat or too ugly to find anyone else at all.

I hear my girlfriend, talking about her weight, and worrying about what others think, and I just know that it is all rooted in low self esteem, a low self esteem that seems to stick around, even after I put serious effort in to trying to improve her opinion of herself.

I see female friends of mine, who refuse to go for jobs that I know for a fact that they could do, because even a chimp could do them, yet they don’t apply because they feel like they are not good enough.

I also hear and see many other things, that seem to be examples of women with low self esteem, and I don’t know why it is.

If I showed you a photo of my girlfriend naked, next to a picture of me naked, you would automatically think “that must be a prostitute, or he must be rich” because she is waaay out of my league, yet she worries about me leaving her if she does not maintain her appearance, even thought I would stay with her no matter what she looked like.

She won’t actually say it, but it is very obvious that is indeed what it is, when she starts going on about improving how she looks, shortly followed by asking me why I love her, or what I like about her body, or some other similar thing.

Is it all the magazines and Tv’s fault? is it a combination of things?

Could it be that females have some kind of code in the DNA that makes them have lower self esteem in general?

Is it just a cultural thing? are any countries or groups an obvious exception?

What is the cause?