THE WISDOM OF BEING FEMALE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Armed with the knowledge that several thousand more boys than girls are born in Britain every year I have been trying for some time—largely from a medical point of view—to under- stand the alleged alteration in the proportion of the sexes at later ages; particularly in view of the fact that several thousand women die annually in childbirth.
I have come to the conclusion that absence and not death is responsible for the alteration, so that it is not, after all, so much more dangerous to be born a boy. All births should be registered, so presumably those numbers are practically correct. Later statistics, however, can only be obtained from the Census returns, which apply only to those in Britain at the time. Many boys begin to go abroad after leaving school, and it would be interesting to know how many thousands of British males between about 14 and 6o are out of the country at any one time in Army, Navy, Merchant .Services Civil Service, Trade, a's:.
Some of these have wives with them, but the vast majority have not.
There seems no doubt that women have more chance than men of attaining a great age, so after 55 or so females begin to predominate ; but up to that age I should say the proportion of male to female British subjects is roughly equal, with most probably a slight excess of males.—Yours faithfully, 6 Broadwater Down, Tunbridge Wells. A. MAHONY-JONES.
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