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Kevin O'Brien Chang, Contributor

THE OTHER day a girl named June told me an interesting story. She and her friend Carl were in Burger King when a schoolgirl caught his eye. He introduced himself, told her June was his sister, asked her name ­ Nikki ­ and got her number.

That evening he asked her out. She claimed to be busy, but asked for his sister's number, as she had something to tell her. Nikki then called June and said it was her and not Carl she liked. Did she want to go on a date?

When June expressed surprise, Nikki laughed. She and her friends couldn't bother with men anymore except for money. They were into girls.

GENETIC MODIFICATION

According to a March poll Jamaica's top three performing Government ministers are female ­ Portia Simpson, Aloun Assamba and Maxine Henry-Wilson. Earlier this year Japanese scientists used genetic modification to create mice through parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which a female egg develops into a live birth without male fertilisation. Though not yet applicable to humans, it shows human procreation is possible without males. So women can sexually satisfy each other, govern more efficiently than men, and reproduce without sperm. Clearly, men are no longer, if they ever really were, the dominant sex.

Males die earlier than females, are four times as likely to commit suicide, and 20 times more likely to be murdered. They may occupy most of the positions of power, but society's lowest rungs ­ convicts, drug addicts, the homeless ­ are even more predominantly male. Women, often justifiably, complain about discrimination in Parliaments and boardrooms. But you don't hear them clamouring to be combat soldiers or garbagemen or sewer workers. Society is in fact a triangle, with the tiny portion on top being mostly male, the fairly large lower base being nearly all male, and the great chunk in the middle being mixed but mostly female. At least this is so in the modern west, to which Jamaica belongs culturally.

MALE SUPERIORITY

Women elsewhere are often blatantly oppressed socially and legally. The 'male superiority' syndrome is especially prevalent in China and India, where the strong preference for male babies means female foetuses are routinely aborted. As a result boys now outnumber girls by a third or more in some areas. In the book Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer theorise that these 'surplus' males could generate high rates of social disorder.

They say a large population of unmarried adult males is a high risk factor for both crime and war. In their worst case scenario India and China build up huge armies as safety valves for the 'excess' young men's aggressive energies.

"In 2020 China may deem it worthwhile to have a bloody battle in which many young men die gloriously," says Ms. Hudson.

Market forces may restore gender equilibrium in time. Since the price of scarce commodities goes up while that of plentiful ones fall, baby girls in China and India should in time come to be prized more than boys. But future parity will be cold comfort to the 'favoured' males who grow up womanless because their generation is 'missing' females. I pity them. To me there can be no joy where there are no women, and I find sexually segregated societies incomprehensible.

I remember watching the all-male Indian visitors dancing with each other at a West Indies versus India Test match a few years ago. Poor things, I thought ­ you'd be having a lot more fun if you had women with you. Yet the two countries most notorious for female oppression are ­ at least in biological terms­ the most successful ones. For centuries painful foot-binding made Chinese women cripples. And for centuries the suttee custom forced Indian widows to immolate themselves on their husbands' funeral pyres. Yet China and India are by far earth's most populous countries. Is there some strange relationship between female oppression and human fecundity?

MALE UNDERPERFORMANCE

Jamaica's gender problem is very different. Here male academic underperformance has reached crisis proportions. The situation is most pronounced in our 75 per cent female tertiary institutions, but is apparent at all levels. Seven of our top 10 ranked high schools are all girls and sometimes it seems our boys are actively rejecting education. I'm all for female progress. But half the population cannot hold up the entire sky. In today's world uneducated men are largely unemployable, except as gunmen. Some efforts are being made to address the problem, such as all-boy days at schools. Yet the only real solution is for Jamaican men to become more responsible fathers.

A few months back columnist Valerie Dixon rightly denounced the myth that children ­ and especially boys ­ don't need two parents. For single-parent boys are far more likely to drop out of school and end up in jail. Marriage may be an institution in decline throughout the west, but hands-on paternal love is still crucial to children's confidence. It's no accident that Jamaica has both one of earth's highest absentee father rates and one of its highest murder rates. This is a situation only our women can change, for they are the gatekeepers of sex and conception.

Jamaican old dawgs, who take as much as they can get and give as little as they have to, are only acting as most men everywhere would if they could. The real mystery is why so many Jamaican women so readily allow themselves to be impregnated by men offering neither emotional nor financial support. Jamaica's gender and crime problems will only be solved when our women start demanding more from men than just sperm.