I was reading a few articles on the Y chromosome (i needed to update my knowledge) and i discovered that the full sequencing of the Y chromosome in June of last year has allowed geneticists to determine that men and women are genetically much more different than previously thought.
Before the human genome was sequenced, scientists thought that men and women were almost genetically identical. It was thought that the Y chromosome (the male chromosome) had only one working gene whose only function was to trigger the hormones that transforms a female fetus (all fetuses are created female by default) into a male fetus.
Other than that, men and women were thought to be genetically identical, and their differences to be of hormonal origin.
The sequencing of the Y chromosome has revealed that this chromosome has in fact 78 working genes! It's much more than expected. [But it's still a lot less than other chromosomes, including the X chromosome, that have about 1000 working genes. The Y chromosome is full of decayed genes that no longer serve any purpose, the Y chromosome is indeed an oddity.]
The bottom line is: women and men have between 1 and 2 % of their genes that are different. That's a huge number, humans and chimpanzees also have between 1 and 2 % of their genes that are different.
A human female is therefore as different from a human male as she is from a female chimpanzee!
If you are interested you can read this short and easily understandable article:
http://www.txtwriter.com/Onscience/A...hromosome.html
This one is from the people who have sequenced the Y chromosome, more technical but interesting:
http://www.scienceblog.com/community.../20033023.html