Why are there more women than men?
IN the just released census report, women out number men. <b>Dr Paul Semugoma</b> gives the reasons why.
IN the just released census report, women out number men. Dr Paul Semugoma gives the reasons why.
THE ratio of women to men may (or not) be justification for polygamy, but 95 men for every 100 women was the count. Yet it seems illogical. Why should there be more of one sex? Is it natural?
Population facts
Worldwide research over the years reveals that men and women are just not equal. One sex always has the upper hand in numbers.
Known facts include:
Worldwide at birth, baby boys exceed girls, with 106 boys to 100 girls
Through life, boys and men die off faster than girls and women .
Women live longer.
In a situation of ‘survival of the fittest’, women are fitter .
What happens?
Men are the ‘weaker’ sex. They have to start off life in larger numbers. So, at conception, it is believed that there are 120 male fetuses to every 100 female. Yet even in the womb, the female survives better. Most failed pregnancies are male.
At birth, there are only 106 boy babies for every 100 girls. After birth, life is harder for men. The age specific death rate for the male is higher than for women.
The female has better health immunologically, physiologically and even a lower parasite burden. The male is prone to health risk taking behaviour; from sex without a condom, to smoking, drinking, and ‘extreme sports’. Men work in more dangerous occupations and die in war.
Diseases of the heart and vessels, accidents, and suicides are more common with men. Nature has worked it out that there is a man for every woman (1:1 ratio) at around puberty but men continue dying off faster as people grow older.
Why?
For the survival of any species, a female is very important. If you consider the investment of a woman into the next generation, you can figure out why. The man invests his sperms (and that’s all for many). But for the woman, the female egg is larger, followed by nine months of pregnancy, breastfeeding for a year, and more care.
The woman is simply indispensable. So nature has built into the female genes a better survival advantage than for the male half of the species.
Cultural differences?
However, social cultural factors are at work in some countries to change this. In China, the law only allows one child per couple.
Society prefers boys and girl pregnancies are aborted. In India, the girl-child is considered a social financial burden. She requires a huge dowry to be married off.
So Indian parents abort girl foetuses, and girl babies are killed, to such an extent that some villages have only boys. If this is happening in the most populous countries, with more than two billion of the world’s six billion people, the ratio will change sooner.
And with rapid improvements in health, survival of the male is now ensured.
The writer is a
medical doctor
THE ratio of women to men may (or not) be justification for polygamy, but 95 men for every 100 women was the count. Yet it seems illogical. Why should there be more of one sex? Is it natural?
Population facts
Worldwide research over the years reveals that men and women are just not equal. One sex always has the upper hand in numbers.
Known facts include:
In a situation of ‘survival of the fittest’, women are fitter
What happens?
Men are the ‘weaker’ sex. They have to start off life in larger numbers. So, at conception, it is believed that there are 120 male fetuses to every 100 female. Yet even in the womb, the female survives better. Most failed pregnancies are male.
At birth, there are only 106 boy babies for every 100 girls. After birth, life is harder for men. The age specific death rate for the male is higher than for women.
The female has better health immunologically, physiologically and even a lower parasite burden. The male is prone to health risk taking behaviour; from sex without a condom, to smoking, drinking, and ‘extreme sports’. Men work in more dangerous occupations and die in war.
Diseases of the heart and vessels, accidents, and suicides are more common with men. Nature has worked it out that there is a man for every woman (1:1 ratio) at around puberty but men continue dying off faster as people grow older.
Why?
For the survival of any species, a female is very important. If you consider the investment of a woman into the next generation, you can figure out why. The man invests his sperms (and that’s all for many). But for the woman, the female egg is larger, followed by nine months of pregnancy, breastfeeding for a year, and more care.
The woman is simply indispensable. So nature has built into the female genes a better survival advantage than for the male half of the species.
Cultural differences?
However, social cultural factors are at work in some countries to change this. In China, the law only allows one child per couple.
Society prefers boys and girl pregnancies are aborted. In India, the girl-child is considered a social financial burden. She requires a huge dowry to be married off.
So Indian parents abort girl foetuses, and girl babies are killed, to such an extent that some villages have only boys. If this is happening in the most populous countries, with more than two billion of the world’s six billion people, the ratio will change sooner.
And with rapid improvements in health, survival of the male is now ensured.
The writer is a
medical doctor