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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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 Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:45 am Post subject: South Korea: The world's greatest gender imbalance? |
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Among the younger demographic, South Korea almost certainly has the most uneven gender disparity of anywhere on earth; that is, there are far more young men than young women living in this country.
Lonely Planet says that as of 2010, there are 13 Korean males of peak marriageable age for every 10 Korean females of peak marriageable age (26-30). This is expected to become even more unequal with each passing year, too.
Add to this that most (75%?, 66%?) Western ESL teachers are male, and that virtually all of the 30,000 American troops stationed here are male as well.
Maybe some (perhaps outdated) statistics show an overall male to female ratio that is not as lopsided as can be seen with other countries. However, this data does not take into account an age by age breakdown.
South Korea has disproportionately more elderly women than elderly men. More men than women died fighting in the Korean war. Also, more men than women smoke here and more men than women drink heavily, leading to earlier deaths.
South Korea has a very serious problem among the younger generation. (I believe this specific imbalance to be the most lopsided of anywhere in the world- can anyone prove otherwise?) Among middle aged and older adults we see a strong gender imbalance the other way. But even with these numbers added in, overall, there are still significantly more males than females. |
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Hightop
Joined: 11 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:02 am Post subject: |
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| In my school's 6th grade graduating class this year there were 260 students, 146 boys 114 girls. That screams gender imbalance. |
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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:33 am Post subject: |
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| Hightop wrote: |
| In my school's 6th grade graduating class this year there were 260 students, 146 boys 114 girls. That screams gender imbalance. |
Maybe you just scared off all the girls with your weird staring.
OG 1, HT 0! 欧勒儿欧勒儿 欧勒儿 欧勒儿 ！ |
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Hightop
Joined: 11 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:43 am Post subject: |
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| Old Gil wrote: |
| Hightop wrote: |
| In my school's 6th grade graduating class this year there were 260 students, 146 boys 114 girls. That screams gender imbalance. |
Maybe you just scared off all the girls with your weird staring.
OG 1, HT 0! 欧勒儿欧勒儿 欧勒儿 欧勒儿 ！ |
I will be in Japan in a matter of hours. You are in dahanminguo. Olleh. |
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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:47 am Post subject: |
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| Hightop wrote: |
| Old Gil wrote: |
| Hightop wrote: |
| In my school's 6th grade graduating class this year there were 260 students, 146 boys 114 girls. That screams gender imbalance. |
Maybe you just scared off all the girls with your weird staring.
OG 1, HT 0! 欧勒儿欧勒儿 欧勒儿 欧勒儿 ！ |
I will be in Japan in a matter of hours. You are in dahanminguo. Olleh. |
HT 10, OG 1 欧勒儿 |
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Sadebugo1
Joined: 11 May 2003
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:20 am Post subject: Re: South Korea: The world's greatest gender imbalance? |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
Among the younger demographic, South Korea almost certainly has the most uneven gender disparity of anywhere on earth; that is, there are far more young men than young women living in this country.
Lonely Planet says that as of 2010, there are 13 Korean males of peak marriageable age for every 10 Korean females of peak marriageable age (26-30). This is expected to become even more unequal with each passing year, too.
Add to this that most (75%?, 66%?) Western ESL teachers are male, and that virtually all of the 30,000 American troops stationed here are male as well.
Maybe some (perhaps outdated) statistics show an overall male to female ratio that is not as lopsided as can be seen with other countries. However, this data does not take into account an age by age breakdown.
South Korea has disproportionately more elderly women than elderly men. More men than women died fighting in the Korean war. Also, more men than women smoke here and more men than women drink heavily, leading to earlier deaths.
South Korea has a very serious problem among the younger generation. (I believe this specific imbalance to be the most lopsided of anywhere in the world- can anyone prove otherwise?) Among middle aged and older adults we see a strong gender imbalance the other way. But even with these numbers added in, overall, there are still significantly more males than females. |
Well, that will just mean they have to import more SE Asian brides, but what will that do for the belief that Koreans are a 'pure' race?
Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/ |
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PeterDragon
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:00 am Post subject: |
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I guess Koreans will have to decide what they enjoy more--- being racist or being sexist.
As fun as it is to hate on this nation of thoroughly bigoted (modedits), SK has nothing on the UAE, where men outnumber women more than 2 to 1. Even if we just look at the "youth" set, SK probably doesn't have the absolute worst gender imbalance in the world, but it is a serious and growing problem.
New medical technologies are the lynchpin here, I think. Ultrasound gender detection and modern abortions are a deadly combo in a nation so obsessed with the value of boys.
Another problem is that--- while there is a very prudent law on the books against disclosing the gender of an unborn child--- this law is universally ignored in rural "traditional" areas, where the law is needed most.
In the meanwhile, my wife's doctor up in Seoul won't say peep, citing the law (she's well into the third trimester now). I grudgingly admire his dedication; the hinterlands could use some doctors of his ilk. |
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Cerberus
Joined: 29 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:55 am Post subject: |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
I guess Koreans will have to decide what they enjoy more--- being racist or being sexist.
As fun as it is to hate on this nation of thoroughly bigoted (modedits), SK has nothing on the UAE, where men outnumber women more than 2 to 1. Even if we just look at the "youth" set, SK probably doesn't have the absolute worst gender imbalance in the world, but it is a serious and growing problem.
New medical technologies are the lynchpin here, I think. Ultrasound gender detection and modern abortions are a deadly combo in a nation so obsessed with the value of boys.
Another problem is that--- while there is a very prudent law on the books against disclosing the gender of an unborn child--- this law is universally ignored in rural "traditional" areas, where the law is needed most.
In the meanwhile, my wife's doctor up in Seoul won't say peep, citing the law (she's well into the third trimester now). I grudgingly admire his dedication; the hinterlands could use some doctors of his ilk. |
wasn't aware that law existed.
I wonder how one of my coteachers then knew in her 4th month or, what sex her unborn baby was. I remember talking to her just before she found out.... she was hoping for a boy, her husband wanted a girl.
It will be a girl ,it turned out. |
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PeterDragon
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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Like all laws in Korea, this law can be bent, broken or ignored. My doctor bent the law by giving me an ultrasound video, telling me the answer lay in the vid. I emailed the file to an American midwife friend of mine, and I guess it's going to be a boy.
I'm guessing most persistent expectant parents in Korea find ways aorund this law too.
Statistically, this gender disparity is concentrated almost exclusively in small towns/rural areas. Hopefully they can catch up with the more progressive gender attitudes in urban Korea before Korea turns into a nightmarish hell of mail order brides and miscegination. (Being sarcastic.... kind of.) |
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redaxe
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
I guess Koreans will have to decide what they enjoy more--- being racist or being sexist.
As fun as it is to hate on this nation of thoroughly bigoted (modedits), SK has nothing on the UAE, where men outnumber women more than 2 to 1. Even if we just look at the "youth" set, SK probably doesn't have the absolute worst gender imbalance in the world, but it is a serious and growing problem.
New medical technologies are the lynchpin here, I think. Ultrasound gender detection and modern abortions are a deadly combo in a nation so obsessed with the value of boys.
Another problem is that--- while there is a very prudent law on the books against disclosing the gender of an unborn child--- this law is universally ignored in rural "traditional" areas, where the law is needed most.
In the meanwhile, my wife's doctor up in Seoul won't say peep, citing the law (she's well into the third trimester now). I grudgingly admire his dedication; the hinterlands could use some doctors of his ilk. |
The UAE's gender imbalance is purely because of a huge and nearly all-male immigrant labor force though. Korea's is because of aborting/neglecting females. Big difference. |
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mc_jc
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Location: C4B- Cp Red Cloud, Area-I
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| South Korea: The world's greatest gender imbalance? |
Only second to China. |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
I guess Koreans will have to decide what they enjoy more--- being racist or being sexist.
As fun as it is to hate on this nation of thoroughly bigoted (modedits), SK has nothing on the UAE, where men outnumber women more than 2 to 1. Even if we just look at the "youth" set, SK probably doesn't have the absolute worst gender imbalance in the world, but it is a serious and growing problem.
New medical technologies are the lynchpin here, I think. Ultrasound gender detection and modern abortions are a deadly combo in a nation so obsessed with the value of boys.
Another problem is that--- while there is a very prudent law on the books against disclosing the gender of an unborn child--- this law is universally ignored in rural "traditional" areas, where the law is needed most.
In the meanwhile, my wife's doctor up in Seoul won't say peep, citing the law (she's well into the third trimester now). I grudgingly admire his dedication; the hinterlands could use some doctors of his ilk. |
Interesting. My doctor told us the sex of the baby because the father (me) was a foreigner. It wasn't hard to figure out though, if it is a boy it has a thingy if it is a girl, it doesn't. |
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HalfJapanese
Joined: 02 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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Article I read about gender imbalance in China.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8451289.stm
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More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses by 2020, says the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The gender imbalance among newborns is the most serious demographic problem for the country's population of 1.3 billion, says the academy.
It cites sex-specific abortions as a major factor, due to China's traditional bias towards male children.
The academy says gender selection abortions are "extremely common".
This is especially true in rural areas, and ultra-sound scans, first introduced in the late 1980s, have increased the practice.
Forced prostitution
The latest figures show that for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born, the academy says in a new book.
Researcher Wang Guangzhou, quoted by the Global Times newspaper, said the implications were that men in poorer parts of China may remain single throughout their life.
CHINA'S GENDER IMBALANCE
119 boys born per 100 girls. Rises to 130 boys per 100 girls in some rural areas
Total population 1.3 billion
Expected peak 1.6 billion in 2050
One child policy written into constitution in 1978
Many rural couples allowed second child if first is a girl
"The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40-years-old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on," he said.
In some provinces, 130 boys are born for each 100 girls, the book says.
Experts at the academy also predict the gender imbalance will lead to more inter-generational marriages, where a wife is older than her husband.
A reluctance among young urban Chinese to have a first or second child is exacerbating the problem.
Academy sociologist Yan Hua said: "People's minds have changed a lot during the last 20 years.
"Young couples either don't want to have a second child, or would prefer to live a DINK (Double Income No Kid) life."
The growing imbalance means that forced prostitution and human trafficking has become "rampant" in some parts of the country, according to the researchers.
While analysts admit there is definitely a pronounced gender imbalance in China, they also say that exact information is difficult to obtain because some families are thought to avoid registering female babies in order to make it easier for them to have a second child. |
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Sadebugo1
Joined: 11 May 2003
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:11 am Post subject: |
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Perhaps the gender balance will recorrect itself once Koreans realize the value of having a daughter in the future. You could ask for one heck of a brideprice for a 'pure,' Korean daughter I would think.
Sadebugo
http://travldawrld.blogspot.com/
Last edited by Sadebugo1 on Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:19 am Post subject: |
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| any actual links for these stats on Korea vs the world in gender imbalance? |
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