MEN in the 17th century believed they were outnumbered by women despite a lack of evidence for the claim, Oxford researchers have found.
Dr Margaret Pelling, a historian at Oxford University, looked at books, pamphlets and religious tracts from the period for a study which has now been published in The Historical Journal.
She found numerous references by male writers to being outnumbered by women, but no statistical evidence to support this view.
She said that there was a misogynistic undertone to these numerical claims in her research.
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