Gender inequality in workloads explained by operational sex ratio

Yuan Chen; Erhao Ge; Liqiong Zhou; Juan Du; Ruth Mace

iScience (Jun 2024)

Gender inequality in workloads explained by operational sex ratio

Yuan Chen,
Erhao Ge,
Liqiong Zhou,
Juan Du,
Ruth Mace

Affiliations

Yuan Chen: Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, WC1H 0BW London, UK; State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshui South Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, P.R. China; Corresponding author
Erhao Ge: Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, WC1H 0BW London, UK; State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshui South Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, P.R. China
Liqiong Zhou: State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshui South Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, P.R. China
Juan Du: Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, WC1H 0BW London, UK; State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshui South Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, P.R. China; Corresponding author
Ruth Mace: Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, WC1H 0BW London, UK; Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Université de Toulouse 1 Capitole, France; Corresponding author

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 27, no. 6
p. 110063

Abstract

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Summary: 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.

Published in iScience

ISSN: 2589-0042 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Science
Website: http://www.cell.com/iscience/home

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