Women could have genes that promote old age so that they can feed and raise their children longer. Children of long-living mothers have a better chance of survival, and thus a selective advantage, all other things being equal.
My point is not to prove my personal "theory" about women living longer than men. Rather, I contend that there is almost never One True Cause for anything in evolution. All we can do is propose many different competing factors, and say, with a lot of hand-waving, that factor X was the most important in such and such cases. Newspapers often translate that into "Y happened because of X", but that's just bad reporting.
My point is not to prove my personal "theory" about women living longer than men. Rather, I contend that there is almost never One True Cause for anything in evolution. All we can do is propose many different competing factors, and say, with a lot of hand-waving, that factor X was the most important in such and such cases. Newspapers often translate that into "Y happened because of X", but that's just bad reporting.