Women are brainier than men, according to the latest research on IQ scores.

Psychologists have found that female IQ scores have risen above male IQ scores for the first time in 100 years.

Researchers said that since IQ testing began a century ago, women have lagged by as much as five points behind men, leading psychologists at the time to suggest embedded genetic differences.

However, the recent discovery, uncovered by James Flynn, a world-renowned authority on IQ tests, shows that not only has the gap been narrowing in recent years, this year women have moved ahead of men.

"In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster," said Flynn to the Sunday Times of London. "This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ."

Flynn said that one possible explanation could be that women's lives have become more challenging compared to the lives of men as they multitask between raising a family and doing a job.

Another explanation could be that women may have always had a slightly higher potential intelligence compared to men and are only now beginning the realize it.

Flynn, who is writing a book on his findings, said that more data was needed to explain the trend.

"The full effect of modernity on women is only just emerging," he said.

Flynn had collected IQ examination results from western European countries and from United States, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia.

Researchers found that the gap in scores between men and women was smaller in westernized countries.

Researchers said that data for making direct comparisons was sparse and could only be carried out for a handful of countries compared in the study.

Male and female IQs were found to be almost identical in Australia, and in countries like New Zealand, Estonia and Argentina, women scored marginally higher than men.

"As the world gets more complex, and living in it demands more abstract thought, so people are adapting," Flynn said.

"I suspect that the same trends are happening in Britain, too, although the data is too sparse to be sure," he added.

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