• Gender roles in agriculture

Gender roles in agriculture

An increasing literature examines the association between restricted fetal or early childhood growth and the incidence of diseases in adulthood. Little is known, however, about gender difference in this association. This document assesses the impact of nutritional deficiency in the early lives of survivors of the Chinese Great Famine in terms of health and economic welfare, paying special attention to gender differences. The authors find evidence of several significant negative impacts for female, but not male, survivors, and the gender differences are statistically significant. Furthermore, the document shows that the selection bias caused by differences in mortality plausibly explains more than two thirds of the documented gender difference in the long-term health of famine survivors.

The authors highlight how there is strong evidence that exposure in utero to famine increases the likelihood of disability and illiteracy for rural adult women. Exposure to severe famine at the prenatal and infancy stages has a gender-specific relationship to disability and illiteracy in adulthood. The longterm health impact on men is less pronounced than on women. During the famine period, women have lower age-specific mortality rates than do men. Male fetuses are more likely to miscarry than female fetuses exposed to the same shocks. Female fetuses and infants may be more adaptive to the environment of malnutrition than their male counterparts.

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend