A DANGER TO WOMEN – More and more men are living on earth

The proportion of the male population in the world has been increasing for decades. There are more men that women. What does this means for the coexistence of the sexes?

An overview of the sexes

It’s a man’s world. In the meantime, not only when it comes to the unequal distribution of power, but also when it comes to the ratio of the sexes. The proportion of the male population on earth has been growing every year since 1960. Today the ratio stands at 3.865 billion to 3.930 billion in favor of men.

It doesn’t sound like a big difference, but it means: Many millions of girls were not born in the past few decades. And the trend continues. A recent study in the British Medical Journal predicts that targeted abortions will prevent a further 4.7 million births of girls by 2030.

An increase in the proportion of men is not a biological automatism. “In principle, with a few exceptions, there have been more male births throughout the ages. The gender ratio in modern societies is 105 male babies per 100 female babies, ” says German Federal Institute for Population Research.

With increasing age, however, the situation is reversed because women have a higher life expectancy. In Germany there are a little more women than men.

Why girls have a hard time

But outside of the western world, daughters often still have a much lower status than sons, which in extreme cases can lead to abortions and poorer care for female children.

The decision against female fetuses is often made for economic reasons. So the firstborn sons usually stay with their parents and look after them together with their wives in old age. The girls, on the other hand, have traditionally had to be endowed with high dowries in countries like India. In China, too, which has long been characterized by the one-child policy, as a result of the application of prenatal diagnostics, sons are preferred to be born: 115 compared to 100 daughters.

Danger for women due to the higher proportion of men

What does such a development mean for society. For girls and women, does an increase in the proportion of men in society increase the risk of menacing threats, assaults and sexual violence?

Whether men become openly aggressive due to increased competition depends heavily on the extent to which a society tolerates or sanctions such behavior. If the influence of women – their bargaining power, as sociologists say – becomes greater due to their scarcity, the development could also be different: Because the majority of women do not appreciate openly displayed aggression, men in such a constellation might even have to curb themselves so as not to gamble away their chances on the partner market.

Where is Germany do you have more men than women?

Men per 100 women in the age group 15 to 49 years

Where is Germany do you have more women than men?

Women per 100 men in the age group 15 to 49 years

Here women are underrepresented in Germany

Because in Germany too there are regions with a high lack of women: in rural areas and especially in East Germany, where many young women have moved west. All eastern federal states are affected by this problem, most of them the Ilm district in Thuringia. Here there are 122 men for every 100 women of reproductive age between 15 and 49 years. It is easy to calculate that not everyone can have a chance.

The men are now in the majority

1950 was – 0.31% and 2020 is now + 1.81%

Countries with a large surplus of men

Men per 100 women

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