How didnt women came to outnumber men throughtout history?

[md2000]

@AK84

I wonder how the ratio of ancient societies was after some very bloody wars. The Roman republic ost circa 100,000 men in the first 2 years of the Punic War. That must have had an impact. And demographics do get screwed for a generation or two, not long in the scheme of things, but long enough to have noticeable effects. Wars tend to disporportionatly kill young men, many of them before the have had a chance to reproduce.

Plus some societies, like the Romans, had advanced social structures including slavery. Sleeping with your slaves was a “bad thing” socially, but I’m sure if not, other slaves filled the gap with or without matrimony. The point was that in those social evirons, a slave became a member of the household and therefore was fed, had a place to live, etc. without the need for one-to-one male-female monogamous pairing.

Similarly, the lowest working class would be slaves. If there was a shortage of male slaves to do the heavy lifiting, I assume a few wars would take care of that. I think slavery was as much about finding a place for everyone, avoiding a large homeless lower class that might be trouble.

So maybe there were more women than men at times. As mentioned by others, within a generation that would balance out.

Just because there were more women than men does not mean women ran things - it’s less about numbers than physical power; after all, the largest class was also slaves, and they had no power either. OTOH, from what I read noble women in Rome had a fairly elevated legal status, on their own and exercising their husband’s or late husband’s estate.

[UltraVires]

@Peremensoe

Women give birth to both boys and girls.

It’s no harder than this. Even if a country gets it’s ass kicked in a war and there are 50 men and 2000 women left, those men are gonna do a whole lot of impregnating and the next generation will be evenly mixed male/female.

No matter what happens in life, the next generation is 50:50, keeping everything close to balance, but for the reasons the OP mentioned, women are slightly more represented in the population at 50.8%.

[UltraVires]

@AK84

I wonder how the ratio of ancient societies was after some very bloody wars. The Roman republic ost circa 100,000 men in the first 2 years of the Punic War. That must have had an impact. And demographics do get screwed for a generation or two, not long in the scheme of things, but long enough to have noticeable effects. Wars tend to disporportionatly kill young men, many of them before the have had a chance to reproduce.

Shortage of men doesn’t affect childbirth rates; shortage of women do. If you have 100 men and 1 woman, only 1 child can be born that year.

If you have 1 man and 100 women, you will have 100 children born that year and one tired man.

[Michael63129]

@jtgain

Shortage of men doesn’t affect childbirth rates; shortage of women do. If you have 100 men and 1 woman, only 1 child can be born that year.

If you have 1 man and 100 women, you will have 100 children born that year and one tired man.

Maybe if the man is 80 years old; that’s only once every 3-4 days, I can easily see a younger man (e.g. my age) impregnating thousands of women a year (if it is timed right so they all conceive the first time).

[AK84]

@jtgain

If you have 1 man and 100 women, you will have 100 children born that year and one tired man.

And lots of awkwardness 18 years down the line when the kiddies start…you knwo:eek:

[MandaJo]

@Captain_Amazing

How so, in the case of more women than men? One man can impregnate a lot of women in a short period of time.

If it’s a handful of women and a bunch of men, then in a generation you have a very small population, but it’s still 50/50.

[bldysabba]

@dtilque

India has moved into the modern age with their prejudice against female children. It’s quite common for Indian parents-to-be to find out the sex of the fetus via ultrasound and preferentially abort the females. It’s illegal, but widely practiced anyway.

Quite true, but the situation is improving. The Indian 2011 census revealed that the 2001-2011 period was the first decade in many where the rate at which the sex ratio is becoming skewed has reduced. So at least things are getting worse more slowly than before. I anticipate/hope that the sex ratio gap will start narrowing soon.

[md2000]

I’ve seen a few articles on the Chinese sex ratio problem. Apparently they have their own version of the “Russian mail order bride” problem, involving women from places like Vietnam and Cambodia.

The women advertise they are looking for a “rich” husband in China. (“Rich” is a relative term.) Men who can’t find a match in China will offer to marry them. The women demand a fee. Once the marriage has taken place and the woman gets the money (and whatever else she can get her hands on) she disappears back to Vietnam, possibly to pull the same stunt again.

I haven’t heard about the same problem in India, but I’m sure it’s coming.