(Strange that I am the first here.) "Too Many Women?: The Sex Ratio Question" by Guttentag and Secord. -- Don't be put off by the somewhat lurid title, this is a sense book on the sociology of marriage across the history of the West. Centrally, it notices that despite the overall sex ratio of humans is genetically fixed, many social even…
(Strange that I am the first here.) "Too Many Women?: The Sex Ratio Question" by Guttentag and Secord. -- Don't be put off by the somewhat lurid title, this is a sense book on the sociology of marriage across the history of the West. Centrally, it notices that despite the overall sex ratio of humans is genetically fixed, many social events (especially migrations) can move the sex ratio of people "on the marriage market" quite a distance from 1:1 and this has strong (and predictable) effects on the local cultural norms for gender relations. It uses this to explain the "sexual revolution" in the US from about 1965 to 1980 and a large number of other shifts in gender relations over Western history.
(Strange that I am the first here.) "Too Many Women?: The Sex Ratio Question" by Guttentag and Secord. -- Don't be put off by the somewhat lurid title, this is a sense book on the sociology of marriage across the history of the West. Centrally, it notices that despite the overall sex ratio of humans is genetically fixed, many social events (especially migrations) can move the sex ratio of people "on the marriage market" quite a distance from 1:1 and this has strong (and predictable) effects on the local cultural norms for gender relations. It uses this to explain the "sexual revolution" in the US from about 1965 to 1980 and a large number of other shifts in gender relations over Western history.