January 4, 2018

The reverse gender gap in Mongolia.

The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Everyone knows what Otgonmuren will be. The slim 15-year-old with a strong singing voice will be a herder, like his father. It’s what he’s done since dropping out of school eight years ago: looking after the herd of 300 sheep, goats, horses, and cows.

“My daughters can go to another place, maybe even another country, but my son has to stay here so he can herd,” says his mother, Purevchuluun, who like many Mongolians uses one name....

Mongolia’s boys... make up only 38 percent of higher-education graduates, according to the National Statistics Office. As the country urbanizes, Khovsgol social worker Bayarsaihaa is among those who worry that herding boys could be further left behind if the lifestyle they’ve trained for begins to vanish – erased not just by modernization, but a warmer, drier, and more dangerous environment....

27 comments:

Kevin said...

– erased not just by modernization, but a warmer, drier, and more dangerous environment....

When the story is that men are getting the shaft, you know Global Warming will be the real issue.

Oso Negro said...

If we just spend a few billion on a United Nations study, develop electric cars more quickly, and send legions of liberal arts graduates working for NGOs to Mongolia, it will still suck to be a herding boy, but at least we will feel that we have done something.

rehajm said...

What's reverse about it? Following the trend in education is more accurate.

MadisonMan said...

I imagine the meeting wherein the different Reporters pitch stories they're working on. And this piece of nonsense is green-lit over anything else!

Big Mike said...

I was under the impression that the ratio of males to females among American college undergraduates is approaching 40:60. How are we do different?

Owen said...

The point of the story was to justify a cool road trip.

Oso Negro said...

Blogger Big Mike said...
I was under the impression that the ratio of males to females among American college undergraduates is approaching 40:60. How are we do different?


Fewer opportunities for herding boys. At this time.

J said...

Dang you mean that the descendants of Genghis Khan never figured out how to win.Mongols have only been herding there in that particular transhumance culture for a few thousand years.

J said...

O and more dangerous?Really?These are Mongols.And we ain"t talking biker gangs.

dwick said...

...a warmer, drier, and more dangerous environment...

Mongolia is largely a desert with 250 sunny days a year. Average temperature in most of the country is below zero from November to March and close to it in April and October. Winter nights of -40C are common. Seems to me a bit warmer climate would be better for herding boys not wanting to freeze their balls off.

As for that 'dangerous' environment, sounds like more of the AGW-hyping climate/weather terrorist-media's "Bomb cyclone’ to blast East Coast before polar vortex uncorks tremendous cold late this week"-type hyperbole Althouse blogged about yesterday.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Ah, two other commenters already beat me to it. The "reverse gender gap" described sounds pretty much like our own. Glass houses, stones ...

Paco Wové said...

Probably not significantly different from the western world. 41.5% of U.S. higher education degrees go to men; about 42% of OECD higher ed. degrees go to men.

Rob said...

With a name like Purevchuluun, one name ought to be enough.

J said...

Gee too isn't Mongolia that section of Eurasia that the rest of Eurasia REALLY worried about when the weather got warmer for a few years every 400 years or so?I seem to recall something about about some really vigorous wanderjahrs by some totally misunderstood spontaneous immigrants.you know like the Hsuing-Nu,Yueh-ti,Jurchen,and their cousins

tim in vermont said...

Global warming and Trump. They are all behind everything! Last time it got significantly warmer, Genghis Kahn used the opportunity to cross Asia in a spree of conquest. That raises the question of whether warm temps were good for the Mongols and led to a population boom which allowed such adventures.

But the history books are wrong, only theoretical climate models that rely only partially on known physics can be trusted!

tim in vermont said...

The gender gap, why call it “reverse,” isn’t that privileging one sex over the other? Anyway, the vicious competition for boys is really great for girls in college, isn’t it? It’s great for the guys who make it, that’s for sure.

Winter nights of -40C are common

-40F too!

Kevin said...

I was under the impression that the ratio of males to females among American college undergraduates is approaching 40:60. How are we do different?

No obvious link to Global Warming to get the piece approved.

Fritz said...

dwick said...
...a warmer, drier, and more dangerous environment...

Mongolia is largely a desert with 250 sunny days a year. Average temperature in most of the country is below zero from November to March and close to it in April and October. Winter nights of -40C are common. Seems to me a bit warmer climate would be better for herding boys not wanting to freeze their balls off.

As for that 'dangerous' environment, sounds like more of the AGW-hyping climate/weather terrorist-media's "Bomb cyclone’ to blast East Coast before polar vortex uncorks tremendous cold late this week"-type hyperbole Althouse blogged about yesterday.


But on the bright side, there are some mighty big trout in Mongolia

rehajm said...

But on the bright side, there are some mighty big trout in Mongolia

Taimen are also ferocious predators. Their main diet is “small” fish and they do take well-presented streamers. That’s great fun, but the amazing thing is that taimen feed on the surface. They will nail beavers, ducklings, gophers, and mice.


Crikey! I'll go get to tying up a few of may favorite gopher patterns.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Reverse gender gap in Mongolia sounds like a phrase I'd make up to express "things I could not care less about."

Fernandinande said...

“My daughters can go to another place, maybe even another country, but my son has to stay here so he can herd,” says his mother,

Let's play Translate!

"My daughters can't herd worth a damn so my son has to stay here and work to take care of me."

CJinPA said...

Mongolia’s boys... make up only 38 percent of higher-education graduates, according to the National Statistics Office.

U.S. male college rate is about 40 percent. Maybe that's a story.

LYNNDH said...

Mongolia is a beautiful country. I recommend you visit. They hate the Russians and the Chinese.

FIDO said...

They have good cause to hate the Russians and Chinese. Both despise Genghis Khan and tried to eradicate his memory.


Quick anecdote: at my church, a female doctor came to visit. Not a missionary but just a cross cultural thing. I spoke to her for a few moments and asked about how many female doctors there were in Mongolia, assuming a sexist disparity.

Well...it seems that about 20 years ago, Mongolia felt they did not have enough doctors to go around. So they rounded up X number of women students and dictated that they all go to medical school.

I did not think to ask why not round up that many men.

This is not exactly a 'free' society.

Michael K said...

In his book, 'Imperial Grunts, Robert D Kaplan described Mongolia as probably the most pro-American country on earth. A lot of this was due to the American chief of military assistance who was fluent in Khalka the most common Mongolian dialect. Also the Mongolians hate the Han Chinese who they suspect are having designs on their country as they did with Tibet,.

n.n said...

Sex differences. Boys just want to be cowboys.

Nancy Reyes said...

under Confucius, sons have to obey the father and care for the extended family by staying home at the family farm. But girls, hey, big city here I come.

That is not just in Mongolia: Check stories of South Korean farmers seeking foreign brides (from the Philippines or VietNam) because they can't find local girls to marry them.
https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21602761-korean-men-are-marrying-foreigners-more-choice-necessity-farmed-out