100 million women are missing
two indisputable constants. Firstly, all the "rich countries" have more women than men. Secondly, most poor countries have a deficit of women. However while the first rule is absolute the second is more of a tendency. In fact it is not always the most "developed" regions of the South where women do best. One can even say that economic development accompanied by an increase in discrimination against women.
As we have seen previously, Black Africa, Latin America, and east and south-east Asia excepting China, have no significant deficit of women. Punjab and Haryana, are among the richest states in India, have the most "missing women", while Kerala, which is twice as poor — with a per capita income lower than that of Bangladesh — has a male/female ratio close to that in Europe. In fact the deficit of women in India has grown along with economic development from 97/100 in 1901 to 93/100 in 1971 (it is 93.3/100 today) although the life of expectancy of both sexes has improved.
In China, since the economic reforms of 1979, which have led to important successes in agriculture, the proportion of women to men has fallen from 94.3/100 in 1979 to 93.4/100 in 1989. Furthermore, women's life expectancy, which was higher than men's before the reforms, now appears to be lower?
Status within the family
The status and power of women within the family differs significantly from one region to another. For example, the fact that they have their own property, and above all that they engage in socially recognized economic activity, considerably strengthens their position. Amartya K. Sen analyses the relations between men and women in the family as a particular type of "conflictual cooperation" (the two cooperate to gain but the distribution of the gains is the object of a conflict of interests of which the two parties are not necessarily conscious). As a general rule, the fact that the mother distributes the food does not prevent her from being deprived, along with her daughters.?
Here the perception of the respective value of the man's and the woman's work is crucial. Is their work equally "productive"? Which of the two contributes the most to the upkeep of the family? Each society has its own answers to such questions, answers which in their turn shape individual behaviour. The solution of the conflict in the family is thus largely conditioned by a culturally acquired "false con-
Empirically it can be observed that family life is unfavourable to women if: (1) they cannot count on an external income; (2) their work is considered to be unproductive; (3) they have no possessions of their own and (4) society does not recognize that women are the objects of prejupoints depend extent on the women having paid employthe home. This last condition education, and and political action by women.
First of all, a woman who works "outside" has direct access to income, albeit small. This means that she enjoys the respect due to someone who brings in at least a part of the household's necessary
When the job also enjoys degree of social and legal protection, the woman is guaranteed a certain security. Subjectively, also, the experience working outside the home has an educational effect: the woman becomes more aware of her interests and their value to the family. These factors improve not only the position of the mother, but also that of her daughters, who generally are under-privileged compared to the boys. In fact, their lower status is largely due to the fact that they offer less of a guarantee for the old age of their parents.
In descending order here are the figures for employment of women outside the home in different regions of the Third World: China, 74%; Black Africa, 56%; South/South-East Asia (other than China), 51%; Latin America, 31%; SouthCentral Asia, 38%; Middle North Africa, 14-15%. If one then looks at the life expectancy ratio of women compared to men, the order of the regions is the same, with the exception of China, which this time occupies one of the lowest positions, and the Middle East/North Africa, which move up a place. '° This is a striking convergence given the big differences in all other respects between these
The case of Sub-Saharan Africa is par* This article first appeared in the April 5, 1991 issue of the Swiss revolutionary Marxist fortnightly, La 1. The worst ratios in Latin America were in Nicaragua (96), Panama (96.2), Paraguay (97.6), the Dominican Republic (97.8), Venezuela (98), Peru and Cuba (98.5) and Ecuador (98.8), according to the figures in the UN Demographic Yearbook, 1987 2. Jean Drèze and Amartya K. Sen, Hunger and Public Action, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, p. 52; Amartya K. Sen "More than 100 million women are missing", New York Review of Books, December 20, 1990, 3. Amartya K. Sen, "More than...." p. 66 logical Factors in Sex Differences in Mortality" in A D. Lopez and L. T. Ruzicka (Ed.) Sex Differences in Mortality, Canberra, (Australia), 1983. 5. Amartya K. Sen, "More than..." p. 62 6. Ibid. See also. J. Kvnch and A. K. Sen. "Indian
WOMEN ticularly significant. Here women perform 80% of agricultural work, produce 60% of goods consumed and bring in more than a third of monetary revenue in rural house holds. It is without doubt this central ecosocio-cultural implications that lead to the relative equality of men and women in the face of death, despite the discrimination against women on other levels.!!
China is a special case. The China of the 1950s inherited millennia of prejudice against women. However the policies of the new regime effected a spectacular turnaround. 12 The general expansion of health services and of opportunities for paid work, as well as the recognition of women's economic role, resulted in deep socio-cultural changes. While average life expectancy rose by 15 years between 1950 and 1979 (before the introduction of the economic reforms), that of women rose faster than that of men.
Economic reforms in China
Starting in 1979, the introduction of the economic reforms led to strong growth in agricultural output. According to the (doubtless exaggerated) official figures, agricultural output doubled between 1979 and 1986. But during this time, curiously, the death rate has also been rising, particu larly for women. The women/ men ratio in the population went from 94.3 in 1979 to 93.4 in 1986 (it is 94 today). It is even probable that women's life expectancy at birth has fallen below that of men (66 Women: Well-being and Survival" Cambridge Journal of Economics, 7, 1983, pp. 363-380 7. World Bank. World Development Report 1990, Oxford 1990, table 32. 8. In this regard, see Irene Tinker (Ed.), Women and World Development, Oxford University Press, 1990. 9. Lincoln C. Chen, Emdadul Huq and Stan D'Souza, "Sex Bias in the Family Allocation of Food and Healthcare Rural Bangladesh" Population and Development Review 7 (1), 1981, p. 67 10. For the rates of activity of women, see Shirley Nuss et al., Women in the World of Work, B.I.T., Geneva, 1989. Drèze and Sen op. cit., p. 58. propose a similar classification, but with some geographical restrictions. 11. Janice Jiggins "How Poor Women Ear Income in Sub-Saharan Africa and What Works Against Them", World Development, 17 (7), 1989, pp. 953-963. 12. Elisabeth Croll, Chinese Women since Mao, M. E. 27 Sharpe, 1984. May 13, 1991 • #206 International Viewpoint
WOMEN compared to 69 years). 13
How is the combination of strong economic growth and a deterioration in the situation of women to be explained? The reason is that the responsibility system" which went into general effect after 1983, which means that each family disposes of its own surplus product above a fixed norm, while it has permitted appreciable gains in productivity, has developed to the detriment of social gains of which women were the prime beneficiaries. For example, the disbanding of the work brigades and rural communes has meant the collapse of health organization in the coun tryside.
Decline in paid work
At the same time the new organization of work has meant a decline in paid work for women and thus of economic recogni-
"The responsibility system has displaced the sources of women's income from work outside the home towards domestic activities, where there is no way of evaluating their contribution." Between 1978 and 1985 the share of net income of peasant households derived from individual 26.8% to 81.1% 14 Plots has risen from
Furthermore, the new insecurity contributes to reinforcing the preference for male children, as a guarantee for the parents' old age. In this context there is nothing astonishing in the fact that the authoritarian measures introduced in 1979 to profamilies" led to increase in the infanticide of girl children. According to some authors, infantile mortality of girl children went from 37.7 per thousand in 1979 to 67.2 per thousand in
Even if these figures are exaggerated, the tendency clearly exists: indeed it has been recognized by the authorities who today authorize a second child if the first is a girl. To these factors it is necessary to add a political element: since 1979 the improvement of women's lot has ceased to be a government priority. On the contrary, the authorities are calling on women to "reinforce the domestic economy" 16
Neither traditional prejudices, nor the place of women in "oriental" civilizations, nor under-development provide a full explanation for the missing women in vast regions of the Third World. In fact, we can see that egalitarian economic development, and the participation of women in paid work, reduces the demographic anomaly.
This participation, however, is not only determined by economic factors. For example, the level of education plays an essential role in the demographic outcome. And while there is a connection between levels of education and participation in social economic activity, this is neither automatic nor one-way. Thus, as 28 is a are scenarly high Kerala mere taere we have seen, in India's Kerala state there International Viewpoint #206 • May 13, 1991
(103). Furthermore, female life expectancy at birth is 72 years there, as against 67 for men. However, the participation of women in economic activity is not especially high. On the other hand, there is a level of literacy (71%) which is higher than in any other Indian state, the average being 26%, or even China (56%), where two thirds of the illiterate are women.
This specific case has a long history, which provides some insights into the role of the family structure in relation to the property system. In a large part of Kerala, inheritance is matrilinear, which strengthens women's position. In the north India on the other hand, the right of succession discriminates against the girls. In fact, since the 19th century, "in Travencore [part of what is now Kerala] as in other populations in the south, the proportion of the sexes has been closer to Eurothan to those in the north." In the same period, female infanticide was very widespread in Punjab."9 We can see from this that ancient sociocultural peculiarities can work either in favour of (as in Kerala) or against (as in northern India and China) women.
### Political action
Political action, including efforts by public authorities and a level of mobilizathemselves, is an important factor. In 1817, the Queen of Travencore noted that "the state must take charge of the total cost of its people's education in order to avoid any backwardness in the diffusion of education."20 At the start of the 19th century, the independent kingdoms of Travencore and Cochin, which are at the origin of Kerala state, enjoyed a public education system ahead of its time. It should be added that in the last decades of this century this heritage has been systematically developed by the left-wing forces that rule the state (the Communist Party won power in 1957), by putting emphasis on education and health services, and giving special attention to the position of
The example of Cuba also shows the relative autonomy of political factors; if the male/female ratio is still one of the poorest in Latin America, the trend since the 1950s has nonetheless been favoura"Impact of the Responsibility System on Women in Rural China, An Application of Sen's Theory of Entitlements", World Development 17 (3), 1989, p. 344 15. Banister, China's Changing Population, table 4.12. 16. Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed; Women in Contemporary China, Stanford University Press, 1984; Aslanbeigui and Summerfield op. cit., p. 347. 17. Drèze and Sen, op. cit., p. . 222. H. Qi, "Do Women Hold up Half the Sky?" Beijing Review, 29(9), 1986, p.4. 18. Quoted by Drèze and Sen op. cit., p. 224. 19. Monica Das Gupta, "Selective Discrimination Against Female Children in Rural Punjab, India", Population and Development Review, 13 (1), 1987, p.88. 20. Quoted in Census of India, 1931, XXVIII, Trivanble to women. The ratio was 91.6 in 1950, 94.8 in 1960, 95.1 in 1970, 97.8 in 1980 and 98.8 today. We have observed a similar tendency in China before the reforms
Examples such as Kerala, Black Africa, Cuba or pre-1980 China show that underdevelopment does not inevitably lead to the inequality of women in the face of death. Ancient socio-cultural prejudices can be combatted by political measures backed up by the mobilization and selforganization of women. On the other hand, economic growth unaccompanied by appropriate social and political measures can lead to growing inequality of the sexes as is seen in northern India and in post-1980 China.
In the last analysis
However, it is impossible, in the last analysis, to escape from economic determinism. While non-egalitarian growth can reinforce discrimination against women, generalized impoverishment certainly has even more dramatic effects. As can be seen currently in Sub-Saharan where "stabilization programmes" "structural adjustment plans" are causing unprecedented misery and leading to a deterioration in the lot of women, through the dismantling of public services with the consequent effects on women's employment, education and health, the exodus from the countryside and the swelling of the informal sector in the big cities and all
In this field, that of the inequality of women in the face of death, as in all others, Third World countries have ever less room for manoeuvre. Nonetheless, Amartya K. Sen has shown that the growth of the overall resources of a poor country does not necessary reduce the misery of the majority of its inhabitants, notably of women; for this to take place there must also be a more just distribution within
This is not just a moral issue, but a political necessity. A real alternative to depen-
"the development of underdevelopment" is impossible without the mobilization of the great mass of the disunifying egalitarian objectives, which must by their nature also be feminist.* drum, 1932, p. 301. 21. On socio-cultural policies in Kerala, see Vivant Univers, 383, Sept-Oct 1989 and Monthly Review, January 1991. 22. Anuario Estadistico de Cuba, 1987, p. 57 23. Janice Jiggins, op. cit., pp. 953-963; Andrée Michel, "African Women, Banks and Development. A Feminist Approach", Peace Research 22(3), 1990, pp. 23The present situation in Sub-Saharan Africa can be summed up in several figures. 25 countries are under the control of World Bank and IMF plans. They import 25% of food consumed, there are 100 million starving people (of 450 million inhabitants), 50% of export income goes on servicing the debt and there was a decline of 25% in living standards between 1980 and 1990.