Gender Inequality in Mortality: Hypothesis and Age-Geographical Standards

Tatiana Arteaga, CEDEPLAR / UFMG
Laura L. R. R. Wong, Cedeplar/Ufmg
Marília Nepomuceno, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)

Male mortality is, historically, vis-à-vis age, higher than women's mortality; conspicuous gender inequality however may impact this sex gap leveling out the levels or even, reversing them. Our hypothesis is that in regions where the Mortality Sex Ratio (MSR) unfavors women, depending on the mortality transition, gender dynamics disproportionately disadvantage them. Our objective is to quantify inequalities using the MSR and life expectancy at birth E0, employing an age-geographical approach. We classified the MSR and E(o) according to countries based on a proposed typology considering: four set if indicators: the UN life tables; the Gender Inequality Index (GII); a Demographic Transition Index (DTI); and the World Values Survey (WVS). Age groups of interest are (0-1), (1-4), (15-49), (60-75) for the period 1980- 2020. By conducting a multivariate quantitative analysis, we estimate a new gender inequality index, based on mortality indicators (MSR and E0) in a scatterplot. The geometric distance between each country and the theoretical equality point will offer a gender inequality estimate. A negative index indicates gender inequality disadvantaging women, while a positive index shows inequality disadvantaging men. Preliminary result in this paper, suggests a slight increase in the infant mortality sex-gap when countries reachs relatively high E0.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Mortality and Longevity, Population and Development, Population Policies

See extended abstract.