Men behave singularly like eternal bachelors !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

BRITAIN is turning into a bachelor nation.

Source: Timesonline
June 26, 2005 Author: John Elliott

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....... “It’s becoming more difficult to meet girls because they’ve spent too much time reading The Rules (a book on dating),” he said. “They aren’t supposed to ring us back and we’re supposed to chase them. After a while you just get exasperated and say ‘sod it ’.”

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BRITAIN is turning into a bachelor nation. A study reveals that the country has a greater proportion of unattached men than at any time since the 1940s.
Half of today’s 25-year-old men have never married or lived with a girlfriend, an increase from a third in the 1970s. The number of 30-year-old males similarly unattached has doubled over the same period.

The study by the London School of Economics (LSE) shows that while both men and women are delaying marriage and serious relationships, the effect is much more pronounced among men.

The last time so many men aged 25-30 reported never having lived with a female partner was in the second world war.

While the fall in marriage is well documented, it has widely been thought this is because couples are moving in together instead. But the LSE study, designed to test this notion, found growing numbers of men are simply not forming serious relationships until later in life.

The study looked at data on 10,000 people collected from 1991-2002 and will be presented at a conference of economists and sociologists this week. It shows 50% of men aged 25 have never lived with a woman, while 20% aged 30 find themselves in the same position.

The researchers do not offer an explanation but opinion falls into two broad camps.

Some suggest more men are simply choosing happy-go-lucky bachelor lives, as epitomised by the characters in the television sitcom Men Behaving Badly, while others think a growing minority are finding it harder to integrate into modern society and are living sadder, more solitary lives.

Phillip Hodson, a psychologist who has studied the behaviour of men for three decades, said: “There are the ‘work hard, play hard’ men who don’t want to be tied down. Then there are the stay-at-home young men who emotionally and psychologically have never made the breakaway, remaining relatively childlike, locked away with computers, living with mum and having their washing done. They may not be able to establish relationships, full stop.”

Roona Simpson, the study’s author, said last week the pressure of work may also be taking a toll, with young men concentrating more on careers and less on romance.

Other observers suggest that while people of both sexes are leaving education later this may take a greater toll on the romantic lives of men. Women also have a greater motive to enter into relationships early because of fears they may have more difficulty conceiving when older.

Adam Chappell, a 30-year-old bachelor from Earls Court in west London — who has never lived with a girlfriend — said many of his friends did not feel mature enough to settle down until their thirties. He had no regrets about his lifestyle. “It’s been fun. I’ve been able to drop everything and fly to New York at three days’ notice to see mates.

“There has been a string of failed relationships, but there’s the feeling of onwards and upwards. There’s a great sense of relief and you can go out on the pull again.”

Chappell also believed high property prices were to blame. He said many preferred to rent and live alone rather than make the financial commitment of buying a home with a girlfriend.

Patrick Aschan, a 33-year-old estate agent from Fulham, west London, who has never lived with a girlfriend, said potential partners were often too aloof or elusive. “It’s becoming more difficult to meet girls because they’ve spent too much time reading The Rules (a book on dating),” he said. “They aren’t supposed to ring us back and we’re supposed to chase them. After a while you just get exasperated and say ‘sod it ’.”

Last week Jeremy Butler, 32, an account manager who confessed he was a little shy, said he was so frustrated at being single in London that he was going to stand on his local high street with a banner declaring: “Girlfriend wanted — apply here.”
Professor John Ermisch, who studies the economics of the family at Essex University, said the job market was probably an influence on the bachelor lifestyle of many young men.

Less predictable career paths meant it took men longer to know whether or not they would rise to a high-status position, he said. “This means people postpone partnerships, because if you feel you are going to achieve a higher status, it’s better to wait and see, and signal when you have done so.”

During the war only 42% of 25-year-old men were in a serious relationship, most of those being married. By the 1970s, 69% were married and 2% had lived with someone. By 2000 only 21% were married and 29% had lived with a girlfriend.

Call for more boys in medical schools

MEDICAL schools should discriminate in favour of “immature” boys who are beaten to places by more grown-up female students, doctors will argue at a major conference tomorrow, writes Sarah-Kate Templeton.

A motion to the British Medical Association annual conference in Manchester calls for medical schools to make allowances for boys’ slower educational, social and biological development.

More than 60% of medical students and almost 80% of new GPs are now women. Doctors warn that, if the trend continues, men may find it difficult to get to see a male GP.

Dr Andrew Green, a GP from Hedon, East Yorkshire, and chairman of the East Yorkshire Local Medical Committee, which proposed the motion, said: “Boys have a later puberty than girls. Anyone who works with teenagers knows that 16-year-old girls are more mature than 16-year-old boys and this is the age at which they need to apply to medical school. This difference disappears by the time men reach their early twenties.

“Medical schools need to select for the student’s potential rather than where they are now. We are putting a great effort into encouraging students from lower social groups and from different racial groups. The area we have shied away from is the gender balance. People think that is not politically correct.”