Female Supremacy Articles - Page 10

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"It's the women on campus who are asking the question: Where are the boys?" says Mr. Mortenson. "In some cases they're transferring between institutions if the gender balance is too far out of whack.

"When the gender balance gets to some level, like 60-40, and a lot of girls aren't getting dates on Saturday night, they say, 'Well, I'd like to have a social life -- I'm going someplace else.'"

The problem is, says Mr. Mortenson, "there aren't very many places else to go. In the aggregate there are something like two million more girls in college (in the U.S.) than there are boys right now, and you can't go many places to find the boys."

It's becoming apparent to women that the gender imbalance on campus is going to spill over into the marriage market, he says. That's why women should be concerned about it. "You can't cruise along on your own success and leave everybody else behind and ultimately have the kind of life that you envisioned as a youngster."

Mr. Hacker cites the TV show Sex and the City as a cultural marker of the growing mismatch between men and women. "That wouldn't be such a popular program," he says, "if it didn't show these four women, none of whom can find a man worthy of them. And I see this with my students and elsewhere."