Malaysian male psyche at fault?

I found this article on the NST via Lulu's blog. It's an interesting article that reflects the kind of stupidity that is going on in parliament. I don't see why a person's choice of bride is of such national importance as to be discussed in parliament.

However, this MP had 'jokingly' suggested that men were to blame for the high number of women who remained spinsters. All this was part of the discussion on the fiasco of Malaysian men taking foreign wives through 'agencies' and did not end up registering the marriages legally. "There would be fewer single women if men were willing to marry women who were more educated and earning higher salaries", she said. She further went on to say that, "My advice to men is this: Focus on your education." So, I was wondering if this was true and did a little research on my own.

I wonder what facts she might have to back up her statement with. Since she's the Parliamentary Secretary for Women, Family and Community Development, I'm sure that she has some data to back up her statement that women were more educated than men and so men should focus on their education in order to marry these ladies.

According to the numbers I got from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, the percentage of female enrolment in 2003 is: (a) primary - 48.6% (b) lower sec - 50.0% (c) upper sec - 54.6% (d) tertiery - 57.2% (e) graduates - 54.6%. Guys, looks like we're pwned! The overall stats do support her case that there are more educated women than men at almost all levels. [Except in the engineering department of course, damnit! - Me]

However, I have another alternative explanation to the issue. What if, the educated women were *also* being picky about their choice of husband. Since they are well education and have a good paying job, shouldn't they be willing to marry someone who isn't as capable as them? Most Malaysian women are looking for security in a marriage. So, they are not willing to settle for someone less, which will force them to be the breadwinner for the family and the provider of security.

As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Shifting the blame squarely on us guys isn't quite right. So, I present a counter claim (pun on the original quote). "There would be fewer single women if women were willing to marry men who were less educated and earning lower salaries". Shields up! Don't call me a male chauvinistic pig. I'm not. I sincerely believe in gender equality and fairness.

Gender bias aside, the most surprising result from these numbers is that the rest of us educated men should rejoice. There isn't a sufficient supply of educated men in Malaysia. So, that means that our intrinsic value is higher. That is so interesting. So, we should all be sitting and waiting for the women to court us now. They should be buying us food and gadgets and doing all the hard work. Haha, dream on! The world isn't fair unfortunately.

UPDATE: I attached the wrong graphic to the post. This one merely shows the population, not the actual enrolment numbers. Feel free to google up the appropriate data.