Originally Posted by
sharpsandflatts
women's specific road bikes usually have longer seat tubes and shorter top tubes to accommodate women's longer legs in relation to their torsoes...
Yeah, they really do a good marketing job on that. A lot of people think this.
Men and women share almost the exact same proportional segment lengths.
My guess is that high heels and bathing suits skew the perception.
Here's an interesting
PDF on bike fit for women.
In summary: buy the bike that fits you, not your gender.