Is the best answer for this link actually true,do embryos actually start out as females?

Question

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtE7.moBHVN9wELhPZYQclojzKIX?qid=20060622183125AAYBkC2

Is this why there are more females on earth?Since males need some more effort to form?Why is it that males ar looked at as the most significant life forms in the past and even now if this is true?

Answer 1

No. It's not true. If the embryo has a Y chromosome, it will be a guy. No matter what. Even if there's some nondisjunction event and there's like 100000 X chromosomes, as long as there is at least 1 Y chromosome, the embryo will be a guy. The definition of a "male" is the posession of a Y chromosome and an X chromosome cannot spontaneously change into a Y chromosome. Once an embryo has a Y chromosome, it will develop as a guy would develop.

Males are looked at as superior to females because they tend to be "stronger." That is due to the hormones coded for on their Y chromosome. Because they are "stronger" and "bigger," they were more useful for survival when people had to rely on their ability to hunt and work in fields if they wanted to survive. Also, in many cultures, when women got married their parents had to pay a "dowry" to the male's family. If you had a male child, you got the dowry. If you had a female child, you had to pay the dowry. People are cheapskates and don't like paying for anything they don't have to, so they resent having women children because they know they will eventually have to pay the dowry for that child.

I hope that helps.

Answer 2

Actually, your chromosome makeup determines if you will become a boy or a girl. XX is a girl, XY is a male. All eggs contain one X chromosome, which came from your mother. Because she is female, she can only donate an X. You get either an X or a Y from your father.

The Y chromosome contains less genetic material, and is considerably more fragile than the X chromosome, making it more susceptible to mutations that are fatal. Also, male fetuses are more likely to die before or at birth because of chromosomal and developmental defects. Common dislocation and translation defects are XXY (kleinfelter's syndrome) and XYY, and fragile X syndrome (XX with one leg of the second X that does not function properly) All of these infants appear male, but have genetic abnormalities that usually render them infertile, low IQ or with other disabilities. This makes males the more fragile of the two species at birth, and more likely to die. This is also why males have shorter lifespans than females.

It is untrue that males take longer to develop than females. During fetal development, the genitals all look the same. Hormones produced by the fetus cause some of the genital structures to change. Development takes the same amount of time.

As for males being more significant life forms, I would disagree. Many species exist only in the female form. There are fish that live most of their lives as females, and then change into males before they die. One of the most interesting things that can happen is when an unfertilized egg in a female starts to develop into a fetus on its own. The fetus is never fully formed, but the resulting teratoma has hair, teeth, sweat glands, skin and even toenails.

Men have long been considered fragile animals that don't live long and are prone to killing each other, therefore, any male that lived beyond 18 years of age was considered a miracle.

Answer 3

Yes, it's true. Pretty much the only function of the Y chromosome is to turn a fetus into a boy. However, I don't think that means males take more effort to form. It's not that girls are easier to make, just that they're the default.

As for your other question, modern men thought they were better until quite recently (and some still do) pretty much out of habit--because we've always had a patriarchal society. I'm not sure how it formed in the first place, although it might have something to do with the fact that men tend to be physically stronger, and back when our societies were first forming that was about the most important thing you could have going for you. Also the Judeo/Christian/Muslim churches didn't help. People used to take that stuff about keeping silent in church and not being formed in God's image literally, at least in Christian churches. I don't know much about ancient and medieval Judaism, but since it's in the Old Testament they probably believed it too.

Answer 4

Bozobabe's answer in the referenced link is basically correct. Human embryos which are less than 7 weeks of age are indistinguishable with regard to sex, and if genes coding for testosterone never get turned on, the embryo will develop as a female. Thus, the base pattern can be regarded as female. Here's basically how it works. Both male and female embyos have identical genital precursors. If the embryo is male (has a y chromosome), genes on the y chromosome code for testosterone and proteins (Mullerian Duct Inhibitory Factor) which cause the would-be female structures present (muellerian ducts) to degrade and the embryo to develope testes, sperm ducts and a penis. In the absence of testosterone etc., the would-be male components of the embryo (wolfian ducts) degrade and the embryo develops ovaries, fallopian tubes and a uterus. So in essence, without genes on the y chromosome to code for testosterone and MDIF at 7 weeks of age, the embryo, by default, will develop as a female.
I don't think any of this has anything to do with the male/female percentages in the global population, or how societies view males or females in terms of dominance. Other factors play a role in determining population structure (e.g whether or not families have to pay a dowery for a daughter to be married, or when there are restrictions on how many children a couple may have, such as in China). In terms of who's in charge of political and family structures, both matriarchal and patriarchal societies are seen throughout history and across cultures, though male dominance seems widespread in many cultures today.

Answer 5

Humans have 2 chromosomes that determine if they will be male or female. Men have XY, Women have XX
Sperm and eggs each have only 1 chromosome that determines sex. Sperm can have either X or Y, and eggs can have X or X
When combined with the egg, X sperm will produce a female baby, while Y sperm will produce a male baby.

The gender of the child is determined by which sperm makes it to the egg faster. Because Y chromosomes are slightly smaller than X chromosomes, Y sperm weigh slightly less than X sperm, and are slightly faster. This means that slightly more males are born than females.

But why are there more females overall?
Women live longer than men. In part because women do not take as many risks (less women go to war, less women are daredevils, etc.) So overall, there end up being more women than men.

Y chromosomes evolved from mutated versions of the X chromosome, so men are technically more evolved, but by that same logic, people with random mutations that cause cancer are much more evolved. In science, humans are often depicted at the top of the evolutionary tree. But in truth, there are species that are newer than us, and species that are older than us. If you judge the significance of a species by the number of individuals, than ants are more significant than us. If you judge it by the effort of development, then elephants have a much longer gestation period than humans do. If you judge it by brain size, then dolphins have larger brains than us. If you judge it by the complexity of DNA, then females have more complex DNA, and goldfish have almost twice as many chromosomes as humans.

In species where one gender is larger than the other, that gender tends to be the dominant one. The dominant one is usually required to provide for and protect the subordinate one. In humans, males tend to be dominant. I believe this is one of the reasons why men are pushed more by society to protect their country (and woman) and get an education to get a good job (so they can be a better provider).

However, humans set themselves above other animals by having intelligence and free will. This means that we can understand where our urges come from, and men and women can choose what roles they want to play.

Answer 6

Your genetic makeup at conception determines whether or not you are male or female. During develpment embryos "appear" female but that is only because the male parts that we recognized aren't fully developed. We aren't like crocodiles/alligators/turtles? where the temperature in the inside of the shell determines sex.

Answer 7

No Arun it is not true. It is feminism. And feminism is not science but politics. Besides in 1000 of new born kids 511 are boys and 489 girls. 30 years later their numbers become equal. Our future sex is determined by our fathers, because females have XX pair of chromosomes and males have XY pair.

Answer 8

Yes we all begin as females. It depends on genetics and vaginal ph during coitus as to whether you are male or female.