Sex ratios and gender discrimination in Modern Greece

Trends in Twin Births and Survival in Rural Spain: Evidence from 18th to 20th Century

This study examines the changes over time of the twinning rate and infant and child mortality across 17 rural villages in the province of Zaragoza (Spain) over a span of 200 years. The aim is to understand how the twinning rate evolved in conjunction with the processes of economic and social modernization, as well as the demographic transition. During the period analyzed, the twinning rate increased by 10%, rising from 1.26 per 1000 births in the second half of the 18th century to 1.38 per 1000 births in the first half of the 20th century. This rate varied due to hereditary issues, biological factors such as the mother's age and parity, and socioeconomic features like family occupation and the mother's education level. In terms of child mortality, twins historically faced a significantly higher mortality rate. However, they benefited greatly from the mortality transition, at least in absolute numbers. While nearly 60% of twins did not survive beyond 5 years of age in earlier periods, the mortality rate for twins decreased to 40% by the first half of the 20th century. The excess mortality was particularly severe for girls, driven by a widespread preference for sons, which led to higher mortality rates for girls in the first 5 years of life, especially in the earliest months. These findings help us understand the improvements in uterine and childhood survival rates for contemporary twins, which can be attributed to the socioeconomic and medical advancements of the 20th century.

Raising sons or daughters for old age? Influence of children's gender on intergenerational family support in rural families

Background

Under the background of miniaturization of family size and a growing number of young and middle-aged population outflow in rural China, the study of family pension mechanism in rural China from the perspective of changes in the pension functions of son and daughter will not only help to deepen the understanding of the change rules of China's family system, but also provide important reference for the future design of rural pension system.

Data and method

The data come from the China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS), a nationwide social survey project runs by the Social Science Research Centre of Peking University. After excluding missing data, we obtained a valid sample of 11,207 sons and 2028 daughters in four data periods. We applied a fixed effects model for the analysis.

Results

In rural areas, sons mainly provide economic support, while daughters mainly provide life care, thus forming a gender-based division of labor. With increasing off-farm job opportunities for daughters, they provide more economic support for their parents, but the time they spend on housework for their parents is reduced. As the number of children in a family has increased, daughters' role in supporting their parents has decreased. This research shows that although the traditional son-centered pension mode in China has not completely disintegrated, it has changed significantly. The findings reveal that changes in family size and improvements in women's status are important factors in changing family support patterns.

Discussion

Different from the thought research about intergenerational relationship for a whole model, this article from the family internal different subjects role identity, shows the characteristics of the individual in the family, is conducive to theoretically explore the tension in the intergenerational relationship, individual and family which is helpful to understand the contemporary China's rural family generation ethics and intergenerational solidarity model. Families are classified more carefully according to the number, size and gender of children in the family, so as to fully show the heterogeneity and complexity of intergenerational relationships and old-age care models in rural families with different structural types. The discussion of the above issues has refined the description of rural family pension resources in China, which has certain reference significance for improving rural pension policies and actively dealing with the aging population.

Girls start life on an uneven playing field

Background and objectives

Evolutionary research on the sex ratio at birth (SRB) has focused on explaining variability within and between populations, and whether parental fitness is maximized by producing daughters or sons. We tested predictors of SRB in a low-income setting, to understand whether girls differ from boys in their likelihood of being born into families with the capacity to invest in them, which has implications for their future health and fitness.

Methodology

We used data from a cluster randomized control trial from lowland rural Nepal (16 115 mother-child dyads). We applied principal component analysis to extract two composite indices reflecting maternal socio-economic and reproductive (parity, age) capital. We fitted mixed-effects logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios of having a girl in association with these individual factors and indices.

Results

The SRB was 112. Compared to the global reference SRB (105), there were seven missing girls per 100 boys. Uneducated, early-marrying, poorer and shorter mothers were more likely to give birth to girls. Analysing composite maternal indices, lower socio-economic and reproductive capital were independently associated with a greater likelihood of having a girl.

Conclusions and implications

In this population, girls start life facing composite disadvantages, being more likely than boys to be born to mothers with lower socio-economic status and reproductive capital. Both physiological and behavioural mechanisms may contribute to these epidemiological associations. Differential early exposure by sex to maternal factors may underpin intergenerational cycles of gender inequality, mediated by developmental trajectory, education and socio-economic status.

Gender Inequalities and Sex-Differential Mortality in Pre-War Greece: A Regional Perspective

Previous studies have indicated gender-based discriminatory practices as a result of son preference up to the first half of the 20th century in Greece. Demographic indices calculated from published vital statistics, such as sex ratios at birth and at childhood, were distorted to such an extent that certain scholars suggest that this distortion was due to sex-selective infanticide and neglect of the girls. Although we cannot exclude this possibility, the aim of this paper is to assess to what extent under-registration of female births (in the civil registration system) and under-enumeration of females (in censuses) accounted for the skewed sex ratios and to pinpoint that gender-based discrimination was not the same all over Greece. There were areas in insular Greece, notably the Ionian islands and the Aegean Archipelago, and one area in mainland Greece (Epirus) where demographic indices imply that gender inequalities were less acute. On the other hand, there were areas in mainland Greece, notably in Thessaly, where sex-differential mortality denotes extremely unequal treatment of girls.