How women are turning into Mean Girls because there aren't enough good men out there



It's unsurprising, given the success of Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada, that women are often portrayed as catty creatures.

Now, a leading gender expert has admitted that the fiction is not far from reality - and that a scarcity of good men is partly to blame.



Hugo Schwyzer, a professor of gender studies and history at Pasadena City College, says women are being forced to be more competitive with each other than ever.

Competitive: The catty female behaviour, as displayed in 2004 film Mean Girls, is down to the lack of good men, a gender expert argues

He explains that this is particularly true in the dating pool - with fewer 'good' men with marriage potential, women must compromise, while the guys hold all the cards.

This means, he wrote on Jezebel.com, that there is far more female rivalry.

Even women's success over men in education and the job market is fuelling the Mean Girls trend.

Though women are delivering higher academic scores than their male counterparts, colleges are limited in female admissions as they must adhere to rules stipulating a fair 'gender balance'.

'Individual women aren't just being victimized by these preferential admissions policies, but their relationships with their female peers,' he writes.

But the biggest player of all, Professor Schwyzer claims, is the media, which is breeding a culture of women feeling imperfect.



He cited several major articles that added to this idea.



Lori Gottlieb's article in The Atlantic, for example, encourages women to settle and marry 'Mr not-Right' while their 'marital value' is at its peak.

He comments: 'The fewer genuinely good men there are, the greater the bargaining power they have in relationship - and the more concessions women... are told they must make.



'Since so many successful women want to draw from the ever-shrinking pool of genuinely attractive and functional dudes, rivalry (or so we're reminded) must be inevitable.'

In the same magazine, Kate Bolick discussed how there are simply not enough men to go round.



The good news is that his empowering opinion comes with a solution or two.



'The solution begins in seeing the way women's jealousies are linked to socially constructed fears, fears that encourage diminished expectations, increased anxiety, and suspicion of other women.

