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Gender inequality in workloads explained by operational sex ratio

Chen, Yuan; Ge, Erhao; Zhou, Liqiong; Du, Juan; Mace, Ruth; (2024) Gender inequality in workloads explained by operational sex ratio. iScience , 27 (6) , Article 110063. 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110063. Green open access

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Abstract

Ecological differences between human populations can affect the relative strength of sexual selection, and hence drive gender inequality. Here, we exploit the cultural diversity of southwestern China, where some village sex ratios are female-biased, in part due to a proportion of males entering monastic celibacy, to evaluate the role of sex ratio on the sexual division of labor. We used a detachable activity tracker to measure workload by step counts in both sexes among 561 individuals in 55 villages in six different areas. We show that a lower sex ratio and a higher prevalence of monasticism are associated with higher women’s workloads and reduced men’s workloads in the non-celibate population. As the operational sex ratio increases, gender inequality diminishes. This study offers valuable insights into the origins of gender disparities by examining the role of sex ratio on the sexual division of labor.

Type: Article
Title: Gender inequality in workloads explained by operational sex ratio
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110063
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110063
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10196737
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