At a recent social event this subject came up and it seemed to be agreed by both the men and women present that the answer is yes, markedly so - whereas men were believed not to have a strong preference.
Is this in fact the case? And if so, why?
Speaking only for myself and not my gender, I don’t drink red wine because it gives me headaches. That said, if it didn’t I might still prefer white at any sort of a social function because red wine gives people purple teeth, and god forbid you spill.
There are sulfites in most red wines as a preservative. Many people have a bad reaction such as headaches to sulfites.
As for the question in the OP, I suppose it would depend on the individual.
I find red wine tends to be a little stronger. Women on average have lower tolerance than men. But maybe the relative strength is a misconception on my part.
In any case, I’m a woman and I vastly prefer red.
Red for me, please. I can’t speak for all women either, but red’s the preferred wine for the majority of women in my family.
If you’d asked in the 70’s the answer would have been white. Maybe it’s a fashion thing, maybe it’s that we have some very nice locally grown reds.
I preferred white when I was early 20s, and red from my mid/late 20s onward.
That’s exactly why my aunt would not drink it: it caused headaches. My ex-wife, on the other hand, had no problem with it, and preferred it with certain meals.
I think it ultimately comes down to personal preference.
I’ve done my share of grad school wine in ice bucket soirees. In my experience women drink white to red at least 5:1. Far more men drank red, but few men opted for wine in the first place vs beer or the hard stuff.
I’ll cook with white wine, but I rarely drink it. I vastly prefer red wine, but then I vastly prefer beef over other forms of flesh. If I’m eating poultry or fish, I usually will drink water rather than white wine.
Lots of surveys have shown that overwhelmingly more women prefer red wine. Here is one in the last 12 months.
My gf has converted me over to her point of view. We drink wine according to season. When it is cold outside, we drink primarily reds, regardless of the meal. Yes, there are delicate reds that complement fish.
In the summer we lean more toward white wines. Yes, you can enjoy white wine with a chunk of bloody prime rib.
I suspect it’s possible that despite red wine being more popular internationally, the stereotype persists among American women because of the strong sales of sweet pansy-ass wines like white zinfandel.
This woman prefers red. I can certainly enjoy a good white, but I prefer red.
I think some women profess to prefer white because they think that’s what a woman is supposed to like and they want to appear proper or something. I put these nitwits in the same category as women who won’t eat on a date because they don’t want to appear greedy or “a pig”, then binge on Haagen-Daaz when they get home.
Kindly note that I am not regarding women with a genuine preference for white in that manner, my contempt is reserved for women who do stupid stuff in the name of fashion or ridiculous expectations.
Sulfites are in both red and white wine—and per this site, whites have more than reds. Though I wonder if including very sweet white wines throws off the average? Wine sulfite levels are usually less than in, say, dried fruit. For the vast majority of people, sulfites shouldn’t be an issue. What’s causing your red wine headache, isn’t pinned down yet, though I disagree with the wiki about ruling out histamine.
I’m surprised by the cited studies in this thread as anecdotally and observationally, it’s been my experience that women mildly prefer white wines to red. I haven’t seen the strong preference for reds sited in the Vinexpo study. Learn something new, I guess.
I prefer a good white to a good red by a small margin (let’s say 52% white, 48% red). But I like them both. And I’ll take a good red over a mediocre white.
I find I’m in the minority, though. Most people I know - male and female - prefer red.
This. Women with taste buds and any sort of palatte prefer reds. White wines suck. 
My vote is for the purple teeth factor.
These are the reasons I usually drink white at parties. I like them both equally, though, and have boxes of both at home.
Thanks for those links Gray Ghost I was going to say the same thing. As someone who makes wine at home I can attest personally to the fact that both red and white wines get sulfited. It’s a preservative.
I prefer to drink whatever will compliment the food I’m eating. If I’m drinking but not eating (which is highly unusual) I might have either. Depends on what kind of mood I’m in. If it’s a hot summer day I might prefer a white because they’re generally served chilled.
I dislike the purple teeth thing though and if I’m at a function where I’m networking or otherwise worried about making a good impression I might avoid red wine for that reason. In those cases, I drink scotch.
Until very recently, I just thought I hated white wine, because every time I tried any, I hated it. When I finally got around to doing some wine tastings in Virginia and California, I learned that some whites do not, in fact, suck! The fun part about the wine tastings was that I learned what to look for. In whites, I like crisp, citrusy, floral, but not sweet. I could drink most Viogniers all day. I hate hate *hate *“oaky” or “buttery” Chardonnay. I still lean heavily towards reds, especially the heavy, jammy red zins, but at least now I know what to order in a restaurant if I think a white will work better with my meal.
What I do *not *understand is people who walk in and ask for “a glass of Chardonnay” without looking at the wine list and descriptions.