Many couples in China, India and South Korea prefer sons. This cultural pattern combined with the use of ultrasound technology for sex selection over the past two decades has produced the shift, said the authors of an analysis published Monday in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Assn. In nature, about 105 males are born to every 100 females. However, that ratio has exceeded 130 to 100 in several Chinese provinces. In India, some areas have sex ratios of 125 males to 100 females.
The study showed that birth order is influencing the trend. If the first- or second-born children are girls, sex selection is often used to ensure the third child is male. All of these countries have laws against sex-selective abortion, but the laws are rarely enforced.
The trend is not without major social implications. Many more men will be unable to marry, said the authors of the study, from the University College London Centre for International Health and Development. Violence, crime and psychological problems are expected to rise because of the imbalance. The problem cannot be ignored, they wrote.
Women have represented about 57 percent of enrollments at American colleges since at least 2000, according to a recent report by the American Council on Education. Researchers there cite several reasons: women tend to have higher grades; men tend to drop out in disproportionate numbers; and female enrollment skews higher among older students, low-income students, and black and Hispanic students.
In terms of academic advancement, this is hardly the worst news for women — hoist a mug for female achievement. And certainly, women are primarily in college not because they are looking for men, but because they want to earn a degree.
But surrounded by so many other successful women, they often find it harder than expected to find a date on a Friday night.
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