Female Super Mortality in Medieval Europe?

Irene Barbiera, University of Padova
Gianpiero Dalla-Zuanna, University of Padova

In a previous study, we identify a higher infant and youth female mortality in Middle Age Italy; we argued that girls died more frequently because they were neglected during their first years of life (or even during their first months), experiencing unequal resource allocation and hygienic care. The aim of this paper is to extend these results, looking at differences of mortality by sex of people aged 20+ in pre-Black Death Plague Europe (i.e. before 1349), based on the analysis of palaeo-demographic sources and medieval land registers. First results on cemeteries show that probability of death at ages 20-39 was higher for females than for males, especially between ages 20-29 in pre-plague Europe. On the contrary, mortality at age 40+ was similar for males and females. Moreover, even if both male and female mortality decreased for all ages during the Early Modern period in Europe, the changes are starker for young females, whose survival seems to improve more significantly after the Black Death. Finally, trends during the Middle Ages were similar for men and women at 20-29 age, even if the female mortality level was always higher in the three periods here considered (1-5, 6-9, 10-13 centuries).

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Mortality and Longevity, Historical Demography

See extended abstract.