‘Optimistic women more likely to have boys’

WOMEN with a good quality of life and an optimistic outlook are more likely to give birth to boys, a researcher claimed yesterday.

Studies by Dr Sarah Johns, of the University of Kent, found it took more effort for a woman to be pregnant with and raise a son to adulthood.

Women with a better quality of life could invest more time into rearing troublesome males than women struggling to get by, who are more likely to have girls, Dr Johns claimed. She said the pattern has been slowly developing over thousands of years.