[Paleopsych] Newswise: Patriarchal Attitudes, Practices and Discrepancy in Life Expectancy

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Patriarchal Attitudes, Practices and Discrepancy in Life Expectancy
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/514505/

    Source: [1]British Medical Journal
    Released: Tue 13-Sep-2005, 12:50 ET
    Embargo expired: Wed 14-Sep-2005, 18:05 ET

    Description
    Systematic male dominance - patriarchy - explains half the discrepancy
    in life expectancy between the sexes, suggests research.

    JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH

    [Is patriarchy the source of men's higher mortality? J Epidemiol
    Community Health 2005; 59: 873-6]

    Newswise -- Systematic male dominance - patriarchy - explains half the
    discrepancy in life expectancy between the sexes, suggests research
    spanning four continents in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community
    Health.

    The researchers base their findings on a comparison of the rates of
    female murders and male death rates from all causes in 51 countries
    across Europe, Australasia, Asia, North and South America.

    Rates of violence against women are used to indicate the extent of
    societal male dominance over women, otherwise known as patriarchy.

    The wealth of a country, as indicated by the Gross Domestic Product
    (GDP) per head of the population, was also taken into consideration,
    as socioeconomic factors are strongly linked to health.

    The results showed that women lived longer than men in every single
    country included in the study, with murder rates among both sexes and
    GDP strongly linked to death rates in men.

    GDP accounted for 13.6% of the variation in death rates among men. But
    this was nowhere near as high as the female murder rates, which
    accounted for 48.8% of the variation in death rates among men. Male
    murder rates accounted for just 3.5%.

    The higher the rate of female murders, and therefore the greater the
    level of patriarchy, the higher were the death rates among men and
    therefore the shorter their life expectancy, the figures showed.

    "Our data suggest that oppression and exploitation harm the oppressors
    as well as those they oppress," conclude the authors, adding that the
    higher death rate among men, and hence their shorter life expectancy,
    is "a preventable social condition, which can potentially be tackled
    through global social policy."

    They cite the way that children and young people are currently
    socialised into patriarchal gender roles, such as those emphasising
    excessive risk taking, aggression, and the suppression of emotions by
    boys and young men, as examples that need to be tackled.

    Click here to view the paper in full:
    [2]http://press.psprings.co.uk/jech/october/873_ch30387.pdf

    Journal web site: [3]http://jech.bmjjournals.com/

References

    1. http://www.newswise.com/institutions/view/?id=5481
    2. http://press.psprings.co.uk/jech/october/873_ch30387.pdf
    3. http://jech.bmjjournals.com/