Human sex ratio

Last updated

Sex ratio by country for the population below age 15. Blue represents more boys, red more girls than the world average of 1.07 males/female. Sex ratio total population per country 2020 (age 0-14).svg
Sex ratio by country for the population below age 15. Blue represents more boys, red more girls than the world average of 1.07 males/female.
Sex ratio by country for total population. Blue represents more men and boys, red more women and girls than the world average of 1.01 males/female. Sex ratio total population per country 2020.svg
Sex ratio by country for total population. Blue represents more men and boys, red more women and girls than the world average of 1.01 males/female.
Sex ratio by country for the over-65 population. Blue represents more men, red more women than the world average of 0.81 males/female. Sex ratio total population per country 2020 (ages over 65).svg
Sex ratio by country for the over-65 population. Blue represents more men, red more women than the world average of 0.81 males/female.

The human sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population in the context of anthropology and demography. In humans, the natural sex ratio at birth is slightly biased towards the male sex. It is estimated to be about 1.05 [1] or 1.06 [2] or within a narrow range from 1.03 to 1.06 [3] males per female. The sex ratio for the entire world population is approximately 101 males to 100 females (2020 est.). [4]

Contents

The sex ratios at birth and of the total population are affected by various factors including natural factors, exposure to pesticides and environmental contaminants, [5] [6] war casualties, effects of war on men, sex-selective abortions, infanticides, [7] aging, gendercide, problems with birth registration and sex differences in life expectancy. [1]

Human sex ratios, either at birth or in the population as a whole, can be reported in any of four ways: the ratio of males to females, the ratio of females to males, the proportion of males, or the proportion of females. If there are 108,000 males and 100,000 females the ratio of males to females is 1.08 and the proportion of males is 51.9%. Scientific literature often uses the proportion of males. This article uses the ratio of males to females, unless specified otherwise.

Natural ratio at birth

World map of birth sex ratios, 2012. Gray = no data 2012 Birth Sex Ratio World Map.jpg
World map of birth sex ratios, 2012. Gray = no data

In a study around 2002, the natural sex ratio at birth was estimated to be within a narrow range of 1.07 to 1.03 males/female. [3] [8] Some scholars suggest that countries considered to have significant practices of prenatal sex-selection are those with birth sex ratios of 1.08 and above (selection against females) and 1.02 and below (selection against males). This assumption has been questioned by some scholars. [9]

Infant mortality is significantly higher in boys than girls in most parts of the world. Often this is explained as due to biological and genetic sex differences, with boys more biologically vulnerable to premature death and disease. [10] [11] Recent studies have found that numerous preconception or prenatal environmental factors affect the probabilities of a baby being conceived male or female. It has been proposed that these environmental factors also explain sex differences in mortality. [12] In most populations, adult males tend to have higher death rates than adult females of the same age (even after allowing for causes specific to females such as death in childbirth), due to both natural causes such as heart attacks and strokes, which account for by far the majority of deaths, and also violent causes, such as homicide and warfare. Thus females have a higher life expectancy. For example, in the United States, as of 2006, an adult non-elderly male was 3 to 6 times more likely to become a victim of a homicide and 2.5 to 3.5 times more likely to die in an accident than a female of the same age. [13]

In the United States, the sex ratios at birth over the period 1970–2002 were 1.05 for the white non-Hispanic population, 1.04 for Mexican Americans, 1.03 for African Americans and Indians, and 1.07 for mothers of Chinese or Filipino ethnicity. [14] Among Western European countries around 2001, the ratios ranged from 1.04 in Belgium to 1.07 in Switzerland, [15] Italy, [16] Ireland [17] and Portugal. In the aggregated results of 56 demographic and health surveys [18] in African countries, the ratio is 1.03, not with considerable country-to-country variation. [19]

A roadside sign in rural Sichuan: "It is forbidden to discriminate against, abuse or abandon baby girls." PRC family planning don't abandon girls.jpg
A roadside sign in rural Sichuan: "It is forbidden to discriminate against, abuse or abandon baby girls."

There is controversy about whether sex ratios outside the 1.03–1.07 range are due to sex selection, as suggested by some scholars, or due to natural causes. Some scholars argue that strong socioeconomic factors such as the dowry system in India and the one child policy of China are responsible for prenatal sex selection. In a widely cited article, [20] Amartya Sen supported such views. Other researchers argue that an unbalanced sex ratio should not be automatically held as evidence of prenatal sex selection; Michel Garenne reports that many African nations have, over decades, had birth sex ratios below 1.00: that is, more girls are born than boys. [21] Angola, Botswana and Namibia have reported birth sex ratios between 0.94 and 0.99, which is quite different from the presumed "normal" sex ratio, meaning that significantly more girls have been born in such countries. [22]

In an extensive study, carried out around 2005, of sex ratio at birth in the United States from 1940 over 62 years, statistical evidence suggested the following: [23]

History

The human sex ratio at birth has been an object of study since early in the history of statistics, as it is easily recorded and a large number for sufficiently large populations. [24] An early researcher was John Arbuthnot (1710), [25] [26] [27] [28] who in modern terms, performed statistical hypothesis testing, computing the p-value (via a sign test), interpreted it as statistical significance, and rejected the null hypothesis. [29]

Human sex at birth was also analyzed and used as an example by Jacob Bernoulli in Ars Conjectandi (1713), in which an unequal sex ratio is a natural example of a Bernoulli trial with uneven odds. Willem 's Gravesande (1774) also studied it. [28] Pierre-Simon Laplace (1778) used human sex ratio as an example in his development of probability theory. He considered the statistics of almost half a million births; the statistics showed an excess of boys compared to girls. [30] [31] He concluded by calculation of a p-value that the excess was a real, but unexplained, effect. [32]

Factors affecting sex ratio in humans

Fisher's principle

Fisher's principle is an explanation of why the sex ratio of most species is approximately 1:1. Outlined by Ronald Fisher in his 1930 book, it is an argument in terms of parental expenditure. Essentially he argues that the 1:1 ratio is the evolutionarily stable strategy. [33] [34] Many species deviate from an even sex ratio, either periodically or permanently. Examples include parthenogenic species, periodically mating organisms such as aphids, some eusocial wasps, bees, ants, and termites. [35]

Natural factors

The natural factors that affect the human sex ratio are an active area of scientific research. Over 1000 articles have been published in various journals. Two of the often cited reviews of scientific studies on human sex ratio are by W. H. James. [36] [37] The scientific studies are based on extensive birth and death records in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. A few of these studies extend to over 100 years of yearly human sex ratio data for some countries. These studies suggest that the human sex ratio, both at birth and as a population matures, can vary significantly according to a large number of factors, such as paternal age, maternal age, multiple births, birth order, gestation weeks, race, parent's health history, and parent's psychological stress. Remarkably, the trends in human sex ratio are not consistent across countries at a given time, or over time for a given country. In economically developed countries, as well as developing countries, these scientific studies have found that the human sex ratio at birth has historically varied between 0.94 and 1.15 for natural reasons.

In a scientific paper published in 2008, [9] James states that conventional assumptions have been:

James cautions that available scientific evidence stands against the above assumptions and conclusions. He reports that there is an excess of males at birth in almost all human populations, and the natural sex ratio at birth is usually between 1.02 and 1.08. However, the ratio may deviate significantly from this range for natural reasons.

An analysis study from 2015 showed that human sex ratio at conception is roughly 50%, but rises due to total mortality surplus of female embryos. [38] A dataset of 139,704 embryos derived from assisted reproductive technology showed a male sex ratio of 50.2%. [38] A dataset of 4,999 embryos from induced abortions showed a rate of 51.1% for the first trimester and 55.9% for the last two trimesters. [38]

Multiple birth

A 1999 scientific paper published by Jacobsen reported the sex ratio for 815,891 children born in Denmark between 1980 and 1993. [39] They studied the birth records to identify the effects of multiple birth, birth order, age of parents and the sexes of preceding siblings on the proportion of males using contingency tables, chi-squared tests and regression analysis. The secondary sex ratio decreased with increasing number of children per plural birth and with paternal age, whereas no significant independent effect was observed for maternal age, birth order, or other natural factors.

Length of gestation

A 2009 research paper published by Branum et al. reports the sex ratio derived from data in United States birth records over a 25-year period (1981–2006). [40] This paper reports that the sex ratio at birth for the white ethnic group in the United States was 1.04 when the gestational age was 33–36 weeks, but 1.15 for gestational ages of less than 28 weeks, 28–32 weeks, and 37 or more weeks. This study also found that the sex ratios at birth in the United States, between 1981 and 2006, were lower in both black and Hispanic ethnic groups when compared with non-Hispanic white ethnic group.

A research group led by Ein-Mor reported that sex ratio does not seem to change significantly with either maternal or paternal age. Neither gravidity nor parity seem to affect the male-to-female ratio. [41] However, there is a significant association of sex ratio with the length of gestation. [41] These Ein-mor conclusions have been disputed. For example, James suggested [42] that Ein-Mor results are based on some demographic variables and a small data set, a broader study of variables and larger population set suggests human sex ratio shows substantial variation for various reasons and different trend effects of length of gestation than those reported by Ein-Mor. In another study, James has offered the hypothesis that human sex ratios, and mammalian sex ratios in general, are causally related to the hormone levels of both parents at the time of conception. [9] This hypothesis is yet to be tested and proven true or false over large population sets.

Environmental factors

Effects of climate change

Various scientists have examined the question whether human birth sex ratios have historically been affected by environmental stressors such as climate change and global warming. Several studies show that high temperature raises proportion of male births, but the reasons for this are disputed. [43] Catalano et al. report that cold weather is an environmental stressor, and women subjected to colder weather abort frail male fetuses in greater proportion, thereby lowering birth sex ratios. Cold weather stressors also extend male longevity, thereby raising the human sex ratio at older ages. [44] The Catalano team found that a 1 °C increase in annual temperature predicts one more male than expected for every 1,000 females born in a year.

Helle et al. studied 138 years of human birth sex ratio data, from 1865 to 2003. They find an increased excess of male births during periods of exogenous stress (World War II) and during warm years. In the warmest period over the 138 years, the birth sex ratio peaked at about 1.08 in Northern Europe. [43] The increase in the sex ratio for each 1 °C increase in temperature was approximately the same as the result found by the Catalano team. [45]

Effects of gestation environment

Causes of stress during gestation, such as maternal malnutrition, [46] generally appear to increase fetal deaths, particularly among males, [44] resulting in a lower sex ratio at birth. A higher incidence of Hepatitis B virus in a population is believed to increase the sex ratio, while some unexplained environmental health hazards are thought to have the opposite effect. [47]

The effects of gestational environment on human sex ratio are complicated and unclear, with numerous conflicting reports. For example, Oster et al. examined a data set of 67,000 births in China, 15 percent of whom were Hepatitis B carriers. They found no effect on birth sex ratio from Hepatitis B presence in either mothers or fathers. [48]

Effects of chemical pollution

A comparison of the structures of the natural hormone estradiol (left) and one of the nonyl-phenols (right), an endocrine disruptor NonylphenolEstradiol.svg
A comparison of the structures of the natural hormone estradiol (left) and one of the nonyl-phenols (right), an endocrine disruptor

A 2007 survey by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program noted abnormally low sex ratios in Russian Arctic villages and Inuit villages in Greenland and Canada, and attributed this imbalance to high levels of endocrine disruptors in the blood of inhabitants, including PCBs and DDT. These chemicals are believed to have accumulated in the tissues of fish and animals that make up the bulk of these populations' diets. [49] However, as noted in the Social factors section below, it is important to exclude alternative explanations, including social ones, when examining large human populations whose composition by ethnicity and race may be changing.

A 2008 report provides further evidence of effects of feminizing chemicals on male development in each class of vertebrate species as a worldwide phenomenon, possibly leading to a decline in the sex ratio in humans and a possible decline in sperm counts. [50] Out of over 100,000 recently introduced chemicals, 99% are poorly regulated. [50]

Other factors that could possibly affect the sex ratio include:

  • Social status of the mother, known to be a factor in influencing the sex ratio of certain animals such as swine, [51] but apparently not in humans. [52]
  • Whether the mother has a partner may have a small effect on sex ratio, with one study of 84,500 births finding 51.5% male births among women living with a partner, and 49.9% in women who were not. [53]
  • Latitude, with countries near the equator producing more females than near the poles. [54]

Other scientific studies suggest that environmental effects on human sex ratio at birth are either limited or not properly understood. For example, a research paper published in 1999, by scientists from Finland's National Public Health Institute, reports the effect of environmental chemicals and changes in sex ratio over 250 years in Finland. [55] This scientific team evaluated whether Finnish long-term data are compatible with the hypothesis that the decrease in the ratio of male to female births in industrial countries is caused by environmental factors. They analyzed the sex ratio of births from the files of Statistics Finland and all live births in Finland from 1751 to 1997. They found an increase in the proportion of males from 1751 to 1920; this was followed by a decrease and interrupted by peaks in births of males during and after World War I and World War II. None of the natural factors such as paternal age, maternal age, age difference of parents or birth order could explain the time trends. The scientists found that the peak sex ratio precedes the period of industrialization and the introduction of pesticides or hormonal drugs, rendering a causal association between environmental chemicals and human sex ratio at birth unlikely.[ clarification needed ] Moreover, these scientists claim that the trends they found in Finland are similar to those observed in other countries with higher levels of pollution and much greater pesticide use.

Some studies have found that certain kinds of environmental pollution, specifically dioxins, are associated with a lower sex ratio. [56] [57]

Social factors

Population composition

As an example of how the social composition of a human population may produce unusual changes in sex ratios, in a study in several counties of California where declining sex ratios had been observed, Smith and Von Behren observe "In the raw data, the male birth proportion is indeed declining. However, during this period, there were also shifts in demographics that influence the sex ratio. Controlling for birth order, parents' age, and race/ethnicity, different trends emerged. White births (which account for over 80%) continued to show a statistically significant decline, while other racial groups showed non-statistically significant declines (Japanese-American, Native American, other), with little or no change (Black American), or an increase (Chinese-American). Finally, when the white births were divided into Hispanic and non-Hispanic (possible since 1982), it was found that both white subgroups suggest an increase in male births." They concluded "that the decline in male births in California is largely attributable to changes in demographics." [58]

Effects of war

Increased sex ratio during and after a war is called the returning soldier effect. There is still no clear explanation of its mechanics. [59]

Early marriage and parents' age

Several studies have examined human birth sex ratio data to determine whether there is a natural relationship between the age of the mother or father and the birth sex ratio. For example, Ruder has studied 1.67 million births in 33 states in the United States to investigate the effect of parents' ages on birth sex ratios. [60] Similarly, Jacobsen et al. have studied 820,000 births in Denmark with the same goal. [61] These scientists find that maternal age has no statistically significant role on the human birth sex ratio. However, they report a significant effect of paternal age. Significantly more male babies were born per 1000 female babies to younger fathers than to older fathers. These studies suggest that social factors such as early marriage and males siring their children at a young age may play a role in raising birth sex ratios in certain societies. [62]

Partnership status

It has been shown on a sample of 86,436 human births from a US population-based survey that 51.4% boys were born among together living married parents, 52.2% among together living unmarried parents and only 49.9% boys among apart living parents. [63]

Economic factors

Catalano has examined the hypothesis that population stress induced by a declining economy reduces the human sex ratio. He compared the sex ratio in East and West Germany for the years 1946 to 1999, with genetically similar populations. The population stressors theory predicts that the East German sex ratio should have been lower than expected in 1991, when East Germany's economy collapsed, than in previous years. The hypothesis further suggests that, over time, East German birth sex ratios should generally be lower than the observed sex ratios found in West Germany for the same years. According to Catalano's study, the birth sex ratio data from East Germany and West Germany over 45 years support the hypothesis. The sex ratio in East Germany was also at its lowest in 1991. According to Catalano's study, assuming women in East Germany did not opt to abort male fetuses more than female fetuses, the best hypothesis is that a collapsing economy lowers the human birth sex ratio, while a booming economy raises the birth sex ratio. Catalano notes that these trends may be related to the observed trend of an elevated occurrence of very low birth-weight babies from maternal stress, during certain macroeconomic circumstances. [64]

Sex-selective abortion and infanticide

Sign in an Indian hospital stating that prenatal sex determination is not done there and is illegal Sex determination ban.JPG
Sign in an Indian hospital stating that prenatal sex determination is not done there and is illegal

Sex-selective abortion and infanticide are thought to significantly skew the naturally occurring ratio in some populations, such as China, where the introduction of ultrasound scans in the late 1980s has led to a birth sex ratio (males to females) of 1.181 (2010 official census data for China). [65] The 2011 India census reports India's sex ratio in the 0–6 age bracket at 1.088. [66] The 2011 birth sex ratios for China and India are significantly above the mean ratio recorded in the United States from 1940 through 2002 (1.051); however, their birth sex ratios are within the 0.98–1.14 range observed in the United States for major ethnic groups over the same time period. [23] :10 Along with Asian countries, a number of European, Middle Eastern, and Latin American countries have recently reported high birth sex ratios in the 1.06 to 1.14 range. High birth sex ratios, according to some studies, can be caused in part by social factors.

Another hypothesis has been inspired by the recent and persistent high birth sex ratios observed in Georgia and Armenia—both predominantly Orthodox Christian societies—and Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim society. Since their independence from the Soviet Union, the birth sex ratio in these Caucasus countries has risen sharply, to between 1.11 and 1.20, among the world's highest. Mesle et al. consider the hypothesis that the high birth sex ratio may be because of the social trend of more than two children per family, and birth order possibly affects the sex ratio in this region of the world. They also consider the hypothesis that sons are preferred in these countries of the Caucasus, the spread of scans and there being a practice of sex-selective abortion; however, the scientists admit that they do not have definitive proof that sex-selective abortion is actually happening or that there are no natural reasons for the persistently high birth sex ratios. [67]

Data sources and data quality issues

For most of the 20th century in Russia (and the Soviet Union), extremely premature newborns (less than 28 weeks gestational age, or less than 1000 grams in weight, or less than 35 centimeters in length) were not counted as a live birth until they had survived for seven days; if that infant died in those first 168 hours it, would not be counted as an infant death. This led to serious underreporting of the infant mortality rate (by 22% to 25%) relative to standards recommended by the World Health Organization. [68]

A poster from 1982 showing a Chinese family with one child China 1982 happy family with one child.jpg
A poster from 1982 showing a Chinese family with one child

Some researchers have, in part, attributed the high sex ratios reported in mainland China in the last 25 years to the underreporting of the births of female children after the implementation of the one-child policy, though alternative explanations are now generally more widely accepted, including, above all, the use of ultrasound technology and sex-selective abortion of female fetuses and, probably to a more limited degree, neglect or in some cases infanticide of females. In the case of China, because of deficiencies in the vital statistics registration system, studies of sex ratios at birth have relied either on special fertility surveys, whose accuracy depends on full reporting of births and survival of both male and female infants, or on the national population census from which both birth rates and death rates are calculated from the household's reporting of births and deaths in the 18 months preceding the census. [69] To the extent that this underreporting of births or deaths is sex-selective, both fertility surveys and censuses may inaccurately reflect the actual sex ratios at birth. [70]

Countries with imbalances in sex ratio

Sex imbalance in Bahrain caused by policies that restrict female spouses and children of immigrant workers Pyramide Bahrein.PNG
Sex imbalance in Bahrain caused by policies that restrict female spouses and children of immigrant workers

Some countries have a significant disparity between males and females in their population. As stated above, males usually exceed females at birth but subsequently experience different mortality rates due to many possible causes such as differential natural death rates, and increased accidental and violent deaths (including war).

Countries with significant imbalances tend to have three characteristics in common. First, a rapid decline in fertility, either because of preference for smaller families or to comply with their nation's population control measures. Second, there is social pressure for women to give birth to sons, often because of a cultural preference for male heirs. Third, families have widespread access to technology to selectively abort female foetuses. [71]

Some of the factors suggested as causes of this sex imbalance are sex-selective abortion and infanticide, large-scale migration, and behavioral factors statistically linked with sex ratio, such as excessive drinking and violence. [72] Gender imbalance may result in the threat of social unrest, especially in the case of an excess of low-status young males unable to find spouses, [73] and being recruited into the service of militaristic political factions. Economic factors such as male-majority industries and activities, such as the petrochemical, agriculture, engineering, military, and technology industries, have also contributed to an imbalance toward males in some areas dependent on these industries. [74]

One study [75] found that the male-to-female sex ratio in the German state of Bavaria fell as low as 0.60 after the end of World War II for the most severely affected age cohort (those between 21 and 23 years old in 1946). This same study found that out-of-wedlock births spiked from approximately 10–15% during the inter-war years up to 22% at the end of the war. This increase in out-of-wedlock births was attributed to a change in the marriage market caused by the decline in the sex ratio.

Sex imbalance in Estonia Pyramide Estonie.PNG
Sex imbalance in Estonia

Qatar has the highest male-to-female ratio, with 2.87 males/female. For the group aged below 15, Sierra Leone has the lowest female-to-male ratio with 0.96 males/female, and the Republic of Georgia and the People's Republic of China are tied for the highest male-to-female ratio with 1.13 males/female (according to the 2006 CIA World Factbook).

The value for the entire world population is 1.01 males/female, with 1.07 at birth, 1.06 for those under 15, 1.02 for those between 15 and 64, and 0.78 for those over 65. [4]

Countries on the Arabian Peninsula tend to have a 'natural' ratio of about 1.05 at birth but a very high ratio of males for those over 65 (Saudi Arabia 1.14, Arab Emirates 2.73, Qatar 2.84), indicating either an above-average mortality rate for females or a below-average mortality for males, or, more likely in this case, a large population of aging male guest workers.[ citation needed ] Conversely, countries of Northern and Eastern Europe (the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia) tend to have a 'normal' ratio at birth but a very low ratio of males among those over 65 (Russia 0.46, Latvia 0.48, Ukraine 0.52); similarly, Armenia has an above average male ratio at birth (1.17), and a below-average male ratio above 65 (0.67). The latter may be caused by emigration and higher male mortality as a result of higher Soviet-era deaths; it may also be related to the enormous (by western standards) rate of alcoholism in the former Soviet states. [ citation needed ] Another contributory factor is an aging population, given that due to higher differential mortality rates, the ratio of males to females declines with age.

In the evolutionary biology of sexual reproduction the operational sex ratio (OSR), is the ratio of sexually competing males that are ready to mate to sexually competing females that are ready to mate, [76] [77] [78] or alternatively the local ratio of fertilizable females to sexually active males at any given time. [79] This is different from the physical sex ratio because it does not take into account sexually inactive or non-competitive individuals (individuals that do not compete for mates).

Consequences of different sex ratios

Benjaminites seize wives from Shiloh in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld. There were not enough women available for marriage due to the high losses in the Battle at Gibeah. Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 083.png
Benjaminites seize wives from Shiloh in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld. There were not enough women available for marriage due to the high losses in the Battle at Gibeah.

There are several social consequences of an imbalanced sex ratio. It may also become a factor in societal and demographic collapse. For example, the native population of Cusco, Peru at the time of the Spanish conquest was stressed by an imbalance in the sex ratio between men and women. [80] Analyses of how sex ratio imbalances affect personal consumption and intra-household distribution were pioneered by Gary Becker, Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman, [81] [82] and Marcia Guttentag and Paul Secord. [83]

High ratios of males have a positive effect on marital fertility and women's share of household consumption, and negative effects on non-marital cohabitation and fertility and women's labor supply. It has been shown that the labor supply of married women in the U.S., over time, varies inversely with the sex ratio. [84] [85]

One study used 2021 National Archive of Criminal Justice Data and 2016 U.S. Census Bureau data to show the impact of different gender ratios on men's violence against women in 3165 U.S. cities and counties. [86] The sex ratio ranged from 40% men to 60% men in the data. Rates of violence were lowest in places with a 51% male ratio. For lower and higher proportions of males, the more the ratio deviated from the average, the higher was the violence.

See also

Countries:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life expectancy</span> Measure of average lifespan in a given population

Human life expectancy is a statistical measure of the estimate of the average remaining years of life at a given age. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth. This can be defined in two ways. Cohort LEB is the mean length of life of a birth cohort and can be computed only for cohorts born so long ago that all their members have died. Period LEB is the mean length of life of a hypothetical cohort assumed to be exposed, from birth through death, to the mortality rates observed at a given year. National LEB figures reported by national agencies and international organizations for human populations are estimates of period LEB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex-selective abortion</span> Pregnancy termination based on predicted sex

Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based upon the predicted sex of the infant. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common where male children are valued over female children, especially in parts of East Asia and South Asia, as well as in the Caucasus, Western Balkans, and to a lesser extent North America. Based on the third National Family and Health Survey, results showed that if both partners, mother and father, or just the father, preferred male children, sex-selective abortion was more common. In cases where only the mother prefers sons, this is likely to result in sex-selective neglect in which the child is not likely to survive past infancy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infant mortality</span> Death of children under the age of 1

Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births. Similarly, the child mortality rate, also known as the under-five mortality rate, compares the death rate of children up to the age of five.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mortality rate</span> Deaths per 1000 individuals per year

Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1,000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 1,000 would mean 9.5 deaths per year in that entire population, or 0.95% out of the total. It is distinct from "morbidity", which is either the prevalence or incidence of a disease, and also from the incidence rate.

In demography, demographic transition is a phenomenon and theory which refers to the historical shift from high birth rates and high death rates to low birth rates and low death rates, as societies attain more technology, education and economic development. The demographic transition has occurred in most of the world over the past two centuries, bringing the unprecedented population growth of the post-Malthusian period, then reducing birth rates and population growth significantly in all regions of the world. The demographic transition strengthens economic growth process by three changes: (i) reduced dilution of capital and land stock, (ii) increased investment in human capital, and (iii) increased size of the labor force relative to the total population and changed age population distribution. Although this shift has occurred in many industrialized countries, the theory and model are frequently imprecise when applied to individual countries due to specific social, political and economic factors affecting particular populations.

Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born during an individual's lifetime. In medicine, fertility refers to the ability to have children, and infertility refers to difficulty in reproducing naturally. In general, infertility or subfertility in humans is defined as not being able to conceive a child after one year of unprotected sex. The antithesis of fertility is infertility, while the antithesis of fecundity is sterility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex ratio</span> Ratio of males to females in a population

A sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, either periodically or permanently. Examples include parthenogenic species, periodically mating organisms such as aphids, some eusocial wasps, bees, ants, and termites.

Sex selection is the attempt to control the sex of the offspring to achieve a desired sex. It can be accomplished in several ways, both pre- and post-implantation of an embryo, as well as at childbirth. It has been marketed under the title family balancing.

Fetal viability is the ability of a human fetus to survive outside the uterus. Viability depends upon factors such as birth weight, gestational age, and the availability of advanced medical care. In low-income countries, more than 90% of extremely preterm newborns die due to a lack of said medical care; in high-income countries, the vast majority of these newborns survive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reproductive success</span> Passing of genes on to the next generation in a way that they too can pass on those genes

Reproductive success is an individual's production of offspring per breeding event or lifetime. This is not limited by the number of offspring produced by one individual, but also the reproductive success of these offspring themselves.

Natural fertility is the fertility that exists without birth control or other medical interventions. The control is the number of children birthed to the parents and is modified as the number of children reaches the maximum. Natural fertility tends to decrease as a society modernizes. Women in a pre-modernized society typically have given birth to a large number of children by the time they are 50 years old, while women in post-modernized society only bear a small number by the same age. However, during modernization natural fertility rises, before family planning is practiced.

The child sex ratio in India is defined as the number of females per thousand males in the age group 0–6 years in a human population. Thus it is equal to 1000 x the reciprocal of the sex ratio in the same age group, i.e. under age seven. An imbalance in this age group will extend to older age groups in future years. Currently, the ratio of males to females is generally significantly greater than 1, i.e. there are more boys than girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missing women</span> Fewer women than expected in a population

The term "missing women" indicates a shortfall in the number of women relative to the expected number of women in a region or country. It is most often measured through male-to-female sex ratios, and is theorized to be caused by sex-selective abortions, female infanticide, and inadequate healthcare and nutrition for female children. It is argued that technologies that enable prenatal sex selection, which have been commercially available since the 1970s, are a large impetus for missing female children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prenatal hormones and sexual orientation</span> Hormonal theory of sexuality

The hormonal theory of sexuality holds that, just as exposure to certain hormones plays a role in fetal sex differentiation, such exposure also influences the sexual orientation that emerges later in the individual. Prenatal hormones may be seen as the primary determinant of adult sexual orientation, or a co-factor.

Female foeticide in India is the abortion of a female foetus outside of legal methods. A research by Pew Research Center based on Union government data indicates foeticide of at least 9 million females in the years 2000–2019. The research found that 86.7% of these foeticides were by Hindus, followed by Sikhs with 4.9%, and Muslims with 6.6%. The research also indicated an overall decline in preference for sons in the time period.

China has a history of female infanticide which spans 2,000 years. When Christian missionaries arrived in China in the late sixteenth century, they witnessed newborns being thrown into rivers or onto rubbish piles. In the seventeenth century Matteo Ricci documented that the practice occurred in several of China's provinces and said that the primary reason for the practice was poverty. The practice continued into the 19th century and declined precipitously during the Communist era, but has reemerged as an issue since the introduction of the one-child policy in the early 1980s. The 2020 census showed a male-to-female ratio of 105.07 to 100 for mainland China, a record low since the People's Republic of China began conducting censuses. Every year in China and India alone, there are close to two million instances of some form of female infanticide.

Female infanticide in India has a history spanning centuries. Poverty, the dowry system, births to unmarried women, deformed infants, famine, lack of support services, and maternal illnesses such as postpartum depression are among the causes that have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of female infanticide in India.

For years, the census data in China has recorded a significant imbalance in the sex ratio toward the male population, meaning there are fewer women than men. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the missing women or missing girls of China. China's official census report from 2000 shows that there were 117 boys for every 100 girls. The sex imbalance in some rural areas is even higher, at 130 boys to 100 girls, compared to a global average of 105 or 106 boys to 100 girls.

Human reproductive ecology is a subfield in evolutionary biology that is concerned with human reproductive processes and responses to ecological variables. It is based in the natural and social sciences, and is based on theory and models deriving from human and animal biology, evolutionary theory, and ecology. It is associated with fields such as evolutionary anthropology and seeks to explain human reproductive variation and adaptations. The theoretical orientation of reproductive ecology applies the theory of natural selection to reproductive behaviors, and has also been referred to as the evolutionary ecology of human reproduction.

Son preference in China is a gender preference issue underpinned by the belief that boys have more value than girls. In China, the bias towards male over female offspring is demonstrated by the sex ratio at birth (SRB).

References

  1. 1 2 "World Health Organization, Sex Ratio". SEARO.[ dead link ]
  2. Grech, Victor; Savona-Ventura, Charles; Vassallo-Agius, P (27 April 2002). "Unexplained differences in sex ratios at birth in Europe and North America". BMJ: British Medical Journal. 324 (7344): 1010–1011. doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7344.1010. PMC   102777 . PMID   11976243.
  3. 1 2 Chao, Fengqing; Gerland, Patrick; Cook, Alex R.; Alkema, Leontine (7 May 2019). "Systematic assessment of the sex ratio at birth for all countries and estimation of national imbalances and regional reference levels". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (19): 9303–9311. Bibcode:2019PNAS..116.9303C. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1812593116 . PMC   6511063 . PMID   30988199.
  4. 1 2 "CIA Fact Book". The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. 29 November 2021.
  5. "How pollution may be changing the ratio of girls to boys". Stir.ac.uk. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  6. Davis, D. L.; Gottlieb, M. B.; Stampnitzky, J. R. (1998). "Reduced ratio of male to female births in several industrial countries: A sentinel health indicator?" (PDF). JAMA. 279 (13): 1018–23. doi:10.1001/jama.279.13.1018. PMID   9533502.
  7. Very high sex ratios were common in even late medieval Europe, which may indicate sex-selective infanticide. Josiah Cox Russell, 1958, Late Ancient and Medieval Population, pp. 13–17.
  8. Grech, V; Savona-Ventura, C; Vassallo-Agius, P (2002). "Unexplained differences in sex ratios at birth in Europe and North America". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 324 (7344): 1010–1. doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7344.1010. PMC   102777 . PMID   11976243.
  9. 1 2 3 James W.H. (July 2008). "Hypothesis:Evidence that Mammalian Sex Ratios at birth are partially controlled by parental hormonal levels around the time of conception". Journal of Endocrinology. 198 (1): 3–15. doi: 10.1677/JOE-07-0446 . PMID   18577567.
  10. Pongou, Roland (2012). "Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in Boys Than in Girls? A New Hypothesis Based on Preconception Environment and Evidence From a Large Sample of Twins". Demography. 50 (2): 421–444. doi: 10.1007/s13524-012-0161-5 . PMID   23151996. S2CID   24188622..
  11. Alkema, Leontine; Chao, Fengqing; You, Danzhen; Pedersen, Jon; Sawyer, Cheryl C. (1 September 2014). "National, regional, and global sex ratios of infant, child, and under-5 mortality and identification of countries with outlying ratios: a systematic assessment". The Lancet Global Health. 2 (9): e521–e530. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70280-3 . PMID   25304419.
  12. Pongou, Roland (14 November 2012). "Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in Boys Than in Girls? A New Hypothesis Based on Preconception Environment and Evidence From a Large Sample of Twins". Demography. 50 (2): 421–444. doi: 10.1007/s13524-012-0161-5 . PMID   23151996. S2CID   24188622.
  13. "Death Rates for 113 Selected Causes by 5-Year Age Groups, Race, and Sex: the United States, 1999–2006". cdc.gov. 4 March 2019.
  14. Mathews TJ, et al. (June 2005). "Trend Analysis of the Sex Ratio at Birth in the United States". National Vital Statistics Reports. 53 (20): 1–17. PMID   15974501.
  15. "Sex ratio in Switzerland". Switzerland Federal Statistics Office.
  16. "UN Sex Ratio Statistics". United Nations Population Division.
  17. "Sex ratio at birth (per 100 female newborn)". United Nations Data Division.
  18. "The Demographic and Health Survey Program – Quality information to plan, monitor and improve population, health, and nutrition programs". measuredhs.com.
  19. Garenne M (December 2002). "Sex ratios at birth in African populations: a review of survey data". Hum. Biol. 74 (6): 889–900. doi:10.1353/hub.2003.0003. PMID   12617497. S2CID   12297795.
  20. Sen, Amartya (1990), More than 100 million women are missing, New York Review of Books, 20 December, pp. 61–66
  21. Michel Garenne, Southern African Journal of Demography, Vol. 9, No. 1 (June 2004), pp. 91–96
  22. Michel Garenne, Southern African Journal of Demography, Vol. 9, No. 1 (June 2004), p. 95
  23. 1 2 "Trend Analysis of the Sex Ratio at Birth in the United States" (PDF). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics.
  24. Brian, Éric; Jaisson, Marie (2007). "Physico-Theology and Mathematics (1710–1794)". The Descent of Human Sex Ratio at Birth . Springer Science & Business Media. pp.  1–25. ISBN   978-1-4020-6036-6.
  25. John Arbuthnot (1710). "An argument for Divine Providence, taken from the constant regularity observed in the births of both sexes" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London . 27 (325–336): 186–190. doi: 10.1098/rstl.1710.0011 . S2CID   186209819.
  26. Conover, W.J. (1999), "Chapter 3.4: The Sign Test", Practical Nonparametric Statistics (Third ed.), Wiley, pp. 157–176, ISBN   0-471-16068-7
  27. Sprent, P. (1989), Applied Nonparametric Statistical Methods (Second ed.), Chapman & Hall, ISBN   0-412-44980-3
  28. 1 2 Stigler, Stephen M. (1986). The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900. Harvard University Press. pp.  225–226. Bibcode:1986hsmu.book.....S. ISBN   0-67440341-X.
  29. Bellhouse, P. (2001), "John Arbuthnot", in C.C. Heyde; E. Seneta (eds.), in Statisticians of the Centuries, Springer, pp. 39–42, ISBN   0-387-95329-9
  30. Laplace, P. (1778). "Mémoire sur les probabilités" (PDF). Mémoires de l'Académie royale des sciences de Paris. 9: 227–332. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  31. Laplace, P. (1778). "Mémoire sur les probabilités (XIX, XX)". Oeuvres complètes de Laplace. Vol. 9. pp. 429–438.{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  32. Stigler, Stephen M. (1986). The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty before 1900. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p.  134. Bibcode:1986hsmu.book.....S. ISBN   0-674-40340-1.
  33. Fisher, R. A. (1930). The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 141–143 via Internet Archive.
  34. Hamilton, W. D. (1967). "Extraordinary Sex Ratios: A Sex-ratio Theory for Sex Linkage and Inbreeding Has New Implications in Cytogenetics and Entomology" . Science . 156 (3774): 477–488. Bibcode:1967Sci...156..477H. doi:10.1126/science.156.3774.477. JSTOR   1721222. PMID   6021675.
  35. Kobayashi, Kazuya; Hasegawa, Eisuke; Yamamoto, Yuuka; Kazutaka, Kawatsu; Vargo, Edward L.; Yoshimura, Jin; Matsuura, Kenji (2013). "Sex ratio biases in termites provide evidence for kin selection". Nat Commun. 4: 2048. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.2048K. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3048 . hdl: 2123/11211 . PMID   23807025.
  36. James WH (1987). "The human sex ratio. Part 1: A review of the literature". Human Biology. 59 (5): 721–752. PMID   3319883.
  37. James WH (1987). "The human sex ratio. Part 2: A hypothesis and a program of research". Human Biology. 59 (6): 873–900. PMID   3327803.
  38. 1 2 3 Orzack, Steven Hecht; Stubblefield, J. William; Akmaev, Viatcheslav R.; Colls, Pere; Munné, Santiago; Scholl, Thomas; Steinsaltz, David; Zuckerman, James E. (21 April 2015). "The human sex ratio from conception to birth". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (16): E2102-11. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1416546112 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   4413259 . PMID   25825766.
  39. Jacobsen, R; Møller, H; Mouritsen, A (1999). "Natural variation in the human sex ratio". Human Reproduction. 14 (12): 3120–3125. doi: 10.1093/humrep/14.12.3120 . PMID   10601107.
  40. Branum, A. M.; Parker, J. D.; Schoendorf, K. C. (2009). "Trends in US sex ratio by plurality, gestational age and race/ethnicity". Reproductive Epidemiology. 24 (11): 2936–2944 (see p. 2941 Figure 2). doi: 10.1093/humrep/dep255 . PMID   19654108.
  41. 1 2 Ein-Mor E, Mankuta D, Hochner-Celnikier D, Hurwitz A, Haimov-Kochman R (April 2010). "Sex ratio is remarkably constant". Fertil. Steril. 93 (6): 1961–5. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.12.036 . PMID   19159875.
  42. James W.H. (May 2010). "The Inconstancy of Human Sex Ratios at Birth". Fertil. Steril. 94 (3): e53. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2010.05.044. PMID   20598299.
  43. 1 2 Helle, Samuli; Helama, Samuli; Lertola, Kalle (November 2009). "Evolutionary ecology of human birth sex ratio under the compound influence of climate change, famine, economic crises and wars". Journal of Animal Ecology. 78 (6): 1226–1233. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2009.01598.x . PMID   19719518.
  44. 1 2 Catalano R, Bruckner T, Smith KR (February 2008). "Ambient temperature predicts sex ratios and male longevity". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105 (6): 2244–7. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.2244C. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0710711104 . PMC   2538905 . PMID   18250336.
  45. Helle et al., 2009, p. 1228: "an increase of 1 °C in ambient temperature anomaly was related to a 0.06% increase in annual birth sex ratio". Sex ratio in this work is defined as boys/(boys+girls); this increase corresponds to 1.2 additional males for every 1,000 females.
  46. Andersson R, Bergström S (December 1998). "Is maternal malnutrition associated with a low sex ratio at birth?". Hum. Biol. 70 (6): 1101–6. PMID   9825599.
  47. Davis DL, Gottlieb MB, Stampnitzky JR (April 1998). "Reduced ratio of male to female births in several industrial countries: a sentinel health indicator?". JAMA. 279 (13): 1018–23. doi:10.1001/jama.279.13.1018. PMID   9533502.
  48. Oster, Emily; Chen, Gang; Yu, Xinsen; Lin, Wenyao (2008). "Hepatitis B Does Not Explain Male-Biased Sex Ratios in China" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2009.
  49. Man-made chemicals blamed many more girls than boys are born in Arctic, The Guardian, 12 September 2007.
  50. 1 2 Lean, Geoffrey (7 December 2008). "It's official: Men really are the weaker sex". The Independent .
  51. Mendl M, Zanella AJ, Broom DM, Whittemore CT (1995). "Maternal social status and birth sex ratio in domestic pigs: an analysis of mechanisms". Animal Behaviour. 50 (5): 1361–70. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(95)80051-4. S2CID   53173184.
  52. Ellis L, Bonin S (2002). "Social status and the secondary sex ratio: new evidence on a lingering controversy". Soc Biol. 49 (1–2): 35–43. doi:10.1080/19485565.2002.9989047. PMID   14652908. S2CID   39347627.
  53. Norberg, Karen (November 2004). "Partnership Status and the Human Sex Ratio at Birth". Proceedings. Biological Sciences. NBER Working Paper Series. 271 (1555): 2403–10. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2857. PMC   1691865 . PMID   15556894. SSRN   622634. w10920.
  54. Navara KJ (August 2009). "Humans at tropical latitudes produce more females". Biol. Lett. 5 (4): 524–7. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0069. PMC   2781905 . PMID   19364717.
  55. Vartiainen, T; Kartovaara, L; Tuomisto, J (1999). "Environmental chemicals and changes in sex ratio: analysis over 250 years in finland". Environmental Health Perspectives. 107 (10): 813–815. doi:10.1289/ehp.99107813. PMC   1566625 . PMID   10504147.
  56. Check, Erika (21 October 2005). "Pollution makes for more girls". Nature News: news051017–16. doi:10.1038/news051017-16.
  57. Mittelstaedt, Martin (15 November 2005). "Pollution debate born of Chemical Valley's girl-baby boom". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
  58. Smith D, Von Behren J (December 2005). "Trends in the sex ratio of California births, 1960–1996". J Epidemiol Community Health. 59 (12): 1047–53. doi:10.1136/jech.2005.036970. PMC   1732975 . PMID   16286492.
  59. Sävfors, Ragnar (2016). Great Britain after World War I & II: Studying the post-war sex-ratio imbalance (Master's thesis). Stockholm University, Department of Sociology. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  60. Ruder, Avima (1985f). "Paternal-Age and Birth-Order Effect on the Human Secondary Sex Ratio". American Journal of Human Genetics. 37 (2): 362–372. PMC   1684568 . PMID   3985011.
  61. Jacobsen; et al. (1999). "Natural Variation in the Human Sex Ratio". Human Reproduction. 14 (12): 3120–3125. doi: 10.1093/humrep/14.12.3120 . PMID   10601107.
  62. Bernstein, M. E. (1958). "Studies in The Human Sex Ratio 5. A Genetic Explanation of the Wartime Secondary Sex Ratio". American Journal of Human Genetics. 10 (1): 68–70. PMC   1931860 . PMID   13520702.
  63. Norberg, K. (22 November 2004). "Partnership status and the human sex ratio at birth". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 271 (1555): 2403–2410. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2857. PMC   1691865 . PMID   15556894.
  64. Catalano, Ralph (2003). "Sex ratios in the two Germanies: a test of the economic stress hypothesis". Human Reproduction. 18 (9): 1972–1975. doi: 10.1093/humrep/deg370 . PMID   12923159.
  65. China's sex ratio declines for two straight years Xinhua, China (16 August 2011) – "Li Bin, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, made the remarks at a press conference (...). China's sex ratio at birth was 118.08 males for every 100 females in 2010, according to census data, Li said."
  66. India at Glance – Population Census 2011 – Final Census of India, Government of India (2013)
  67. Mesle, France; Vallin, Jacques; Badurashvili, Irina (2007). A Sharp Increase in Sex Ratio at Birth in the Caucasus. Why? How? (PDF). Committee for International Cooperation in National Research in Demography. pp. 73–89. ISBN   978-2-910053-29-1.
  68. Anderson, Barbara A.; Silver, Brian D. (1986). "Infant Mortality in the Soviet Union: Regional Differences and Measurement Issues". Population and Development Review. 12 (4): 705–37. doi:10.2307/1973432. JSTOR   1973432.
  69. For example, the number of births reported to family planning and other administrative agencies has been significantly lower than the number determined in population surveys and the census. See Zhang, Guangyu (April 2004) "Very Low Fertility in China in the 1990s: Reality or An Illusion Arising from Birth Underreporting?" Archived 5 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America.
  70. For studies reveal underreporting or delayed reporting of female births in China, see Merli MG, Raftery AE (February 1990). "Are births underreported in rural China? Manipulation of statistical records in response to China's population policies". Demography. 37 (1): 109–26. doi: 10.2307/2648100 . JSTOR   2648100. PMID   10748993. S2CID   41085573. and Cai, Yong; Lavely, William (2003). "China's Missing Girls: Numerical Estimates and Effects on Population Growth" (PDF). The China Review. 3 (2): 13–29. JSTOR   23461902.
  71. Jian Lee, Deborah; Subramanian, Sushma (15 November 2011). "A Single Man: One Chinese Bachelor's Search for Love". Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  72. Bauer, David (January 2015). "A story of drinkers, genocide and unborn girls". Quartz.
  73. Hudson, Valerie M. and den Boer, Andrea M. (2004) Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population. The MIT Press. ISBN   0262582643.
  74. Florida, Richard (30 March 2008). "A singles map of the United States of America". The Boston Globe.
  75. Kvasnicka, Michael; Bethmann, Dirk (1 October 2007). "World War II, Missing Men, and out-of-wedlock childbearing" (PDF). The Institute of Economic Research, Korea University. 07-30.
  76. Clutton-Brock, T. (2007). "Sexual Selection in Males and Females". Science. 318 (5858): 1882–1885. Bibcode:2007Sci...318.1882C. doi:10.1126/science.1133311. PMID   18096798. S2CID   6883765.
  77. Kvarnemo, C.; Ahnesjo, I. (1996). "The dynamics of operational sex ratios and competition for mates". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 11 (10): 404–408. doi:10.1016/0169-5347(96)10056-2. PMID   21237898.
  78. Emlen, S.T. (1976). "Lek organization and mating strategies in the bullfrog". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 1 (3): 283–313. doi:10.1007/bf00300069. JSTOR   4599103. S2CID   10792384.
  79. Emlen, S.T.; Oring, L.W. (1977). "Ecology, Sexual Selection, and the Evolution of Mating Systems". Science. 197 (4300): 215–223. Bibcode:1977Sci...197..215E. doi:10.1126/science.327542. PMID   327542.
  80. Covey, R. Alan; Childs, Geoff; Kippen, Rebecca (1 June 2011). "Dynamics of Indigenous Demographic Fluctuations: Lessons from Sixteenth-Century Cusco, Peru". Current Anthropology. 52 (3): 335–360. doi:10.1086/660010. ISSN   0011-3204. S2CID   15702434.
  81. Heer, David M.; Grossbard-Shechtman, Amyra (1981). "The Impact of the Female Marriage Squeeze and the Contraceptive Revolution on Sex Roles and the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States, 1960 to 1975". Journal of Marriage and the Family. 43 (1): 49–65. doi:10.2307/351416. JSTOR   351416.
  82. Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman (1993), On the Economics of Marriage – A Theory of Marriage, Labor and Divorce. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
  83. Guttentag, Marcia and Secord, Paul F. (1983), Too Many Women: The Sex Ratio Question. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications
  84. Grossbard-Shechtman, Shoshana and Granger, Clive W. (September 1998). "Women's Jobs and Marriage, Baby-Boom versus Baby-Bust," Population, 53: 731–52 (in French)
  85. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina; Grossbard, Shoshana (2007). "Marriage Markets and Women's Labor Force Participation". Review of Economics of the Household. 5 (3): 249–278. doi:10.1007/s11150-007-9014-1. hdl: 10419/34677 . S2CID   189952913.
  86. Pabst, Jennifer; Walfield, Scott M.; Schacht, Ryan (May 2022). "Patterning of Sexual Violence against Women across US Cities and Counties". Social Sciences. 11 (5): 208. doi: 10.3390/socsci11050208 . ISSN   2076-0760.