My City's More Man Than Yours

Posted by: Judy Chang

12 February 2009 - 7:00am

It may come as little surprise to some that the tech-heavy city of San Jose has more males than females. But in other parts of the Silicon Valley, just the opposite is true.

"A two-block stretch of downtown Los Altos shouts out the proof: Two dozen hair salons, nail parlors and clothing boutiques dominate the landscape with nary a sports bar in sight. 'There used to be a men's store,' [Los Altos, Mayor Megan] Satterlee said. 'It used to exist but it just kind of died out at some point.'

The numbers rang true to three 18-year-old dudes — Justin Carella, Mitch Parsons, and Brian Isbell — happily hanging out recently in Los Altos. In neighboring Mountain View, where Isbell lives, the Census Bureau says there are about 125 men for every 100 women."

"The gender imbalance may be causing relationship problems at one end of Silicon Valley, but relationship problems may be causing the gender imbalance at the other. In Los Altos, for example, census data shows there are more than twice as many divorced or separated women as men.

'Those are family towns,' said [Hans Johnson, a demographer for the Public Policy Institute of California]. 'It might be likely that when people get divorced, the wife ends up with primary custody of the kids and the house, and the man ends up moving out.'"

Full Story: Silicon Valley has many Boys' Towns, but there are Girls' Towns, too

Source: San Jose Mercury News, February 11, 2009