I agree with your account on EP, but I want to add a few things: 1. While women turn sexually mature earlier nowadays as compared to, for example, a 100 years ago, the socially acceptable reproductive age has significantly increased. This creates an extra tension between biological needs and socially acceptable behavior. We tend to forget that Romeo was 14 and Juliet was 13. Some among you will probably say that it is the reason why they killed themselves in stead of taking some kind of "mature" decision about their situation, but I think it serves to illustrate a fact we easily tend to ignore: in past times, what we call today "psychologically immature teens that are not ready to make sex" were responsible people in the process of raising their families. The testosterone peak for a man is around 15 years of age, and the woman's is a bit later… … What we call "teens" and the problems associated with this age group are a product of our culture. The wish-or impulse- to have sex and children early is a natural one and should be viewed as such. 2. In past times, no later than probably 200 years ago, the life expectancy was much lower for both men and women, and even lower for men. There was no such a thing as a 50 years old man dating a 15 years old girl, unless he was a noble of some kind. Although some age difference has always been tolerated between men and women, for the reasons you pointed out, the tendency we observe today to match very old men with very young women-that by the way is much more pervasive in Hollywood productions than in real life- is also a product of our culture and is only possible because we have access to great health care and good food, something our ancestors did not know much about. Women statistically prefer men between 3-5 years older than themselves. 3. Delaying the reproductive age, although offering some advantages in terms of maturity and accumulation of goods, is not the best choice for women. Waiting until being established in a career to marry and have children is a decision women have to make after considering that: a. problems with pregnancy exponentially increase with age and become serious after 35; b. the risks of having breast cancer, endometriosis as well as gynecologic tumors greatly increase if the woman has the first child after 30 years of age; c. problems with the baby itself are much more common in mature women than in young women; d. waiting to marry and reproduce late puts the woman in obvious disadvantages when choosing a partner, what may result in the choice of a sub-optimal one: most men are either already married, or are going for younger women. I think part of the solution to this problem is to afford women easy access to daycare and medical services, such as they can choose when and with whom they will have a baby, without greatly reducing their career choices and professional success. Men and women are not the same, and therefore they should not be treated as same and be given the same kind of message: although waiting a decade until having a baby might be a good thing for a man, it surely is not the best choice for most women.
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