It’s a woman’s world: the man drought

We’re in the middle of a drought. No, not your typical water drought – a man drought. There is a desperate lack of men in every state except for WA and NT, where there are slightly more men than women.

In Queensland, there are 99.5 men for every 100 women; New South Wales: 98.6; South Australia: 98.2; Tasmania: 99.4; ACT 99.2; and Victoria 98.

It’s clear from these statistics and the infographic below that there are more sheilas than blokes in Australia – in fact there are almost 100,000 more women that men. And while more boys are born than girls, this swaps and female numbers take the lead, even more so with the ageing population.

So what does this mean for us, depending on our gender? For single or widowed women who are looking for a partner, the most obvious answer is that there are less fish in the sea. It also shines a light on the fact that women are still outliving their husbands by a number of years. By the time women hit 75, the disparity between the sexes is much more clear and in their mid 80s, there will be 50 per cent more females than males.

When us baby boomers were of dating age, there seemed like there were oceans of men and much fewer women, and that is true – there were about 5 per cent more men than women in the 70s. Nowadays when our children, particularly our daughters, in their 20s can’t find a partner, we can’t seem to understand why – there’s men everywhere, right? Well, now we have the statistics to prove that it’s hard out there for a modern single lady, no matter the age…and it gets harder as the years go on.

And for men, a rise in women doesn’t have any obvious negative implications however it is worrying that males are kind of like a dying breed. It again highlights the prevalence of the widowed in our society and how loneliness is something that affects so many. Often times, it’s the struggle to find a single male for an over 60 woman, particularly when there are half the men there used to be, and you can automatically write off half the living ones as married. These issues are facing our society so what can be done? Should there be more information available about how to deal with the loss of a loved one and how to find love once more or even a support group? Is it better as a woman’s world?

Have you felt the man drought? What do you think about it? Is finding a partner more of a struggle as you age, particularly as a woman?