STUDIES ON THE HUMAN SEX RATIO

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Abstract
The author points out that, in order to study variation of the human sex ratio at conception, one has to eliminate as much as possible of the effect of variation in abortion rate in view of the fact that the sex ratio of abortions is much higher than the sex ratio at birth. In a former study2 dealing with the sex ratio of offspring of men listed in WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA the author found a strong relationship between occupations of fathers and the sex ratio of offsprings. The more masculine the occupation of the fathers (relative low proportion of outstanding women in these occupations) the higher the percentage of sons, and the more feminine the occupation of the fathers (relative high proporiion of outstanding women) the higher the percentage of daughters. With data obtained from AMERICAN WOMEN a similar study was made on the effect of the degree of femininity of the occupations or avocations distinguishing the entrants and the sex ratio of the children. For 746 children of women in masculine occupations (lawyers, politicians, natural scientists, engineers, physicians, dentists, businessmen and other executives, etc.) the percentage of sons was 56.6 percent whereas for 1,663 children for women in feminine occupations (artists, writers, clubwomen, musicians, home-economists, librarians, psychologists, religious and social workers, etc.) the percentage of sons was only 50.2 percent. The difference between these two percentages was 2½ times its standard error, and thus statistically significant. A finer breakdown into four groups was made by classifying the children according to the occupations of both parents. When both parents were in masculine occupations, the percentage of males among 561 children was 58.3 percent, S.E. 2.1; when both parents were in feminine occupations, the percentage of males for 268 children was only 46.2 percent, S.E. 2.3; when the father was in a masculine and the mother in a feminine occupation the percentage of males for 1,200 children was 51.8 percent, S.E. 1.4: This was about equal to 51.4 percent, S.E. 3.7—the percentage of sons for families with a total of 185 children in which the father was in a feminuie and the mother in a masculine occupation. By chi-square test and binomial probability the differences among the three main groups were found to be statistically significant. It was not caused by differences in family size since almost identical percentages were obtained for first births only. The author believes her findings indicate that Goldschmidt's theory of strong and weak sex types as developed for Lymantria may well apply also to humans and other mammals if we stipulate that genetic intersexes are almost never viable in these forms.

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