Historically, all over the world, it has been found that there are slightly more females than males in most countries. Which of the following factors made this possible?
I. Women tend to outlive men at the other end of the life cycle.
II. Girl babies are resistant to boy babies in infancy.
III. Gender-based families with preference for sons.
IV. Gender-neutral behaviour.
Show Hint
When analyzing demographic issues, consider both the biological and social factors that contribute to population distributions.
Increased Female Lifespan: Women generally live longer than men due to biological factors. Infant Female Resilience: Girl babies exhibit lower mortality rates than boy babies, showing greater resistance to infections and diseases in infancy, thus contributing to a slightly larger female population. Son Preference Impact: Family preferences for sons, coupled with technologies to ensure male births, create sex ratio imbalances. This factor does not contribute to a larger female population. Gender-Neutral Behavior Irrelevance: The presence of gender-neutral behavior would not lead to a greater female population. Furthermore, such behavior is rare globally, rendering it an invalid explanation.
