Yet another reason South Korea is such a great place to live! Shsong21, you have nothing to complain about. You are outnumbered!

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It's funny how the first thing that pops in our (men's) minds is being surrounded by a group of single Korean supermodels in their 20's when we see "women outnumber men".

But it looks like, according to the article, men are more outnumbered by "eldery" females.

I didn't read the article, but before I even read eddiev9's post, I was thinking the difference had to be because of women outliving men.

Around ten years ago, I remember looking at my nephew's 6th grade yearbook. Every 6th grade class in the school had exactly 40 students, and there were seven or eight classes of 6th graders.

The ratio of males to females was rather striking - it was either 23/17 or 24/16. Some quick math shows that's roughly six boys for every four girls. I doubt if that was just a coincidence either.

The banners that you see around town advertising match making services for Korean men wishing to marry women from the Phillipines and Vietnam are further proof that Korea has a serious problem brewing.

I think a key factor in all this is the wide spread use of amniocentesis to determine a fetus' sex. Those ratios would have been much closer if Korean parents didn't have the opportunity to find out the sex of the fetus and abort female fetuses - a very common, but seldom discussed occurrence in Korea.

Really Willy? Is that true that aborting female fetuses is a common practice in Korea? I had no idea. I could ask my boyfriend about that, but he'll probably say it isn't true. However, he probably doesn't know about it if it is true.
One time I tried to discuss the problem in China with him about many girl babies ending up in orphanages and being neglected. Then, I wanted to know if the same thing had happened in Korea as a result of the preference for boy babies. I do realize that China had the one child policy which made it a different situation. But, of course my boyfriend (who's Korean) said that Korea is much different from China and that Korean people love their daughters. Which I know is absolutely true, but I was still curious to know whether or not, especially in the past, if there was enough pressure on some parents to get rid of their babies if they were girls. I would be very surprised to hear that this goes on today. I'm just curious.

Well, here is some excellent info on the subject of aborting girls in Korea. It is from 1997 paper.

There is more here. I knew this happened in China, but I didn't realize it was this big in South Korea. For those interested here is a full string of websites in Google.

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Although many will deny it, I understand it is true. While teaching a group of elementary school teachers English they told me this was the cause of the reduction in the number of female students.

I always have believe that the Korean female was the best Korea had to offer the world <BG> That is if one can look beyond the Chon So Ri (nagging) <LOL>

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Chill

What is happening to all the men in the middle years? If boys outnumber girls in early school years due to abortions and women out number men in the elderly years, what is happening to all the men leading up to the elderly years? There has to be a significant "thinning of the herd" among men. Can it be from smoking and drinking? I notice men drinking and smoking, but hardly ever see women doing it.

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I think you meant "thinning of the herd" :-) At least, I hope that's what you meant!

I'm sure smoking and drinking have a lot to do with it. However, I believe across much of the world women live longer than men.

But the matter of aborting female fetuses has not caught up with the phenomena of women outliving men - especially in recent years where people are living much longer than in years past. The abortion thing has only been going on for as long as amniocentesis has been readily available - probably the last twenty years or so. So the problem hasn't really come to roost just yet. But in the next ten years - young Korean men looking for a wife are really going to start feeling the pinch.

Right now the reason why marriage to Filipinas and Vietnamese women is popular is not because of a lack of Korean women - it's because guys out in the countryside on farms can't find Korean women who want to live that kind of lifestyle. That's all about to change though - and soon many Korean guys everywhere (urban or rural) are going to start having to consider this option.

Prior to the aborting thing, it wasn't unusual to see a family with four or five daughters and one son, with the son being the youngest. The parents would have stopped having kids after two or three kids, but they just had to have a son - so they kept on going until they had one. I knew a Korean professor in the States who had five daughters and no sons. I got to know him well enough over the years to ask why him and his wife never had a son. He said when they first immigrated to the US, the family of seven had to live in a two bedroom apartment for several years to make ends meet - and eventually they realized that in American culture it wasn't a big deal if you didn't have any sons. So by the time they could afford a new addition to the family, getting older and American ideals changed their minds.

I think when amniocentesis first became readily available, it caught on very quickly and became really popular. Parents were still thinking like people did in the old days - when boys were much more prized than girls, and if you had more boys than girls - you were really fortunate and even called an "아들 부자" - which literally translated means someone "rich with sons." They were blinded by the idea of being an "아들 부자" and simply didn't consider the ramifications of creating a situation where the country in which they live has three men for every two girls.

Many other factors are coming into play now also - not all of which are related. For example, you now have many college educated women who are shunning the idea of becoming a housewife - and choosing to be un-married professionals (identical to the situation in Japan - but Japan is 20-30 years ahead of Korea in this regard). Or they ar simply marrying at a much older age - in some cases beyond the child bearing years.

I believe the aborting of female fetuses still occurs, but not at the same rate as back in the 1980s. Unfortunately, however, a generation of young Korean men now in their 20s are going to pay for the foolish desire of their parents to only have sons.