The Inequality in Numbers

Despite safety engineering, casualties from industrial accidents have increased. For instance, the number of air accidents in 1988 was higher than ever. Similarly, experimentation in arsenals continues to kill people in all industrialized countries, but the death toll is never made public. Here again, it is men who have the highest casualty rate. For reasons of this nature, women continue to outnumber men. This difference persists in even the most developed societies, e.g., in America. According to data collected in 1967, there were nearly 7,100,000 more women than men. This means that even if every man in America got married, 7,100,000 women would be left without husbands. The following figures taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984) show the ratio of men to women in several Western countries: Country Male (%) Female (%) Austria 47.70 52.93 Burma 48.81 51.19 Germany 48.02 51.89 France 48.99 51.01 Italy 48.89 51.01 Poland 48.61 51.30 Spain 48.94 51.06 Switzerland 48.67 51.33 Soviet Union 46.59 53.03 United States 48.58 51.42