Women live longer than men even during severe famines and epidemics

Women in almost all modern populations live longer than men. Research to date provides evidence for both biological and social factors influencing this gender gap. Conditions when both men and women experience extremely high levels of mortality risk are unexplored sources of information. We investig...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 115; no. 4; pp. E832 - E840
Main Authors Zarulli, Virginia, Jones, Julia A. Barthold, Oksuzyan, Anna, Lindahl-Jacobsen, Rune, Christensen, Kaare, Vaupel, James W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 23.01.2018
SeriesFrom the Cover
Subjects
Biological Sciences
Epidemics
Famine
Females
Gender aspects
Gender differences
Girls
Hazards
Infant mortality
Life expectancy
Life span
Males
Men
Mortality
PNAS Plus
Populations
Risk assessment
Sex differences
Slavery
Social factors
Social Sciences
Survival
mortality
epidemics
gender
famines
survival
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Summary:Women in almost all modern populations live longer than men. Research to date provides evidence for both biological and social factors influencing this gender gap. Conditions when both men and women experience extremely high levels of mortality risk are unexplored sources of information. We investigate the survival of both sexes in seven populations under extreme conditions from famines, epidemics, and slavery. Women survived better than men: In all populations, they had lower mortality across almost all ages, and, with the exception of one slave population, they lived longer on average than men. Gender differences in infant mortality contributed the most to the gender gap in life expectancy, indicating that newborn girls were able to survive extreme mortality hazards better than newborn boys. Our results confirm the ubiquity of a female survival advantage even when mortality is extraordinarily high. The hypothesis that the survival advantage of women has fundamental biological underpinnings is supported by the fact that under very harsh conditions females survive better than males even at infant ages when behavioral and social differences may be minimal or favor males. Our findings also indicate that the female advantage differs across environments and is modulated by social factors.
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Reviewers: T.B., Lund University; and F.M., Institut National d’Études Démographiques.
Contributed by James W. Vaupel, November 22, 2017 (sent for review February 6, 2017; reviewed by Tommy Bengtsson and France Mesle)
Author contributions: V.Z., R.L.-J., and J.W.V. designed research; V.Z. performed research; V.Z. analyzed data; J.A.B.J. interpreted and discussed the results from an evolutionary biology perspective; and A.O. contributed to the literature review and the discussion about biological explanations for the women’s survival advantage (based on human studies); and V.Z., J.A.B.J., A.O., K.C., and J.W.V. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1701535115