Missing Women

The ratio of women living compared to men is called the sex ratio. In much of Europe, for example, there are approximately 105 women per 100 men, resulting in a sex ratio of 1.05. The number varies significantly around the world often due to the inequalities between men and women. This gender bias can begin before birth and impact the length of women's lives.

What the maps show

The maps below show that North America and Europe have consistently had high female ratios over time. Latin American as a whole has seen improvement since 1960, while North Africa has seen a decline.

Sri Lanka, an island off the south of India, has seen large improvements over the last decade, especially compared to other South Asian countries.

Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Macao have also made significant improvements since 1960.

Perhaps most notable are the areas that did not change over time. Between 1960 and 2000, Eastern Europe and Russia have had consistently high female ratios, at or above those of North America and Europe. In contrast, many Asian countries have persistently had very low female to male ratios, most notably China and India. (See the Case Study India and Gender Mortality: Large Differences Between North and South) .


Northern African and the Middle East

Klasen and Wink (2003) point out that there is a considerable migrant flow from South Asia to the oil-rich Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirate, Qatar and Libya. The people migrating for work are predominantly men and the demographics in those countries – to some degree -- reflect the greater proportion of men in their society. However, the countries the men are migrating from are very populous and the migration has little influence on the sex ratio.

Sub-Saharan African

Despite its widespread poverty, Sub-Saharan African as a whole has better female ratio rates than much of Asia, and higher than many countries in North Africa. While the sex ratio of individual countries in Sub-Saharan Africa has varied over time due to war, epidemics or other reasons, as a region its sex ratio is close to Europe’s rate, at 1.02.

The numbers suggest that while overall mortality rates in Africa are quite high, there is relatively little bias against women in terms of health care, social status and mortality. In other words, although resources are often scarce, there is no bias that the resources are directed primarily towards men.

In Sub-Saharan African, there are a great number of women who work outside of the home. This supports the theory that literacy and “gainful employment” do much to elevate the status of women and reduce the gender-bias mortality.

References

Sen, A. “Many Faces of Gender Inequality”, (2001), The Frontline, October 27, 2001.

Sen, A. (1990). "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing" New York Review of Books (12/20/90): 61-66.

Klasen and Wink, Missing Women: Revisiting the Debate,“(2003), Feminist Economics 9
(2-3): 263-299.

World Bank, Bank World Development Indicators CD-ROM