MORE THAN 100

MILLION WOMEN
ARE MISSING
Group 4
Andit, Sweet Baby Jean
Ceballos, Cindy Gel
Galos, Christine
Loyao, Althea
Nuneza, Jillian
Vergara, Lalaine

 At birth, boys outnumber girls everywhere in the world by

much the same proportion.
If men and women receive similar nutritional and medical
attention and general health care, women tend to live
noticeably longer than men.
Women outnumber men in Europe, US, and Japan despite of
the persistence of various types of bias against women. This
is partly the result of social and environmental differences
that increase mortality among men.
In Asia and North Africa, the failure to give women medical
care similar to men results in fewer women surviving. India,
for example, has higher rates of disease from which women
suffer especially in health care and medical attention.

 We can estimate the number of missing women in a

country, say, China or India, by calculating the number of
extra women who would have been in China or India if these
countries have the same ratio of women to men receiving
medical care.
When that number is added to those in South Asia, West
Asia, and North Africa, a great number of more than 100
million women are missing.
These numbers tell us, a terrible story of inequality and
neglect leading to the excess mortality of women.

Two explanations for the neglect of women:

Cultural contrasts between East and West (or between the
Occidental and Orient)
Unequal nutrition and health care provided for women

Only comparing the East from the West is not enough in

explaining why theres a worsening relative mortality of women
The status and power of women in the family differ greatly from
one region to another
An example is the employment outside the
home and the owning of assets by women
Both men and women have interests in common and conflicting
interests that affect family decisions

The division of a familys joint benefits is likely to be less

unfavourable to women when:
They can earn an outside income
Their work is recognized as productive
They own some economic resources and have rights to fall
back on
There is a clear-headed understanding of the ways in which
women are deprived and a recognition of possibilities of
changing this situation

A gainful employment can substantially enhance the deal that

women get. These are the reasons why:
Outside employment for wages can provide women with
income
The social respect that is associated with being a
breadwinner can improve womens status
Outside employment can make women less vulnerable and
precarious
Working outside the home provides experience of the outside
world for women

If different Asian regions

and African regions
(except China) are
ranked according to the
women in so-called
gainful employment:

Ranking the ratios of

life expectancy of
females to those of
males would give us:

Sub-Saharan Africa
Southeast and Eastern
Asia
Western Asia
Southern Asia
Northern Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa
Southeast and
Eastern Asia
Western Asia
Northern Africa
Southern Asia

country with traditional bias

against women

Chinese Leaders Revolution

General
expansion of basic health and medical services
accessible to all
Increase in womens gainful employment
Greater social recognition of the importance of women in the
economy and society

1958-1961 Terrible famine :

remarkable general expansion of

longetivity

1979 Economic reforms was introduced : Chinese life expectancy

increase
Womens life expectancy at birth overtook that of
men
Female death rates declined sharply
Increase the rate of economic growth
Broke the agricultural stagnation

1979-1986

Remarkable achievement :
agriculture output
But After Reforms

increase in general mortality rates

increase death rate than in 1979

Doubling of

WHY
HAVE
WOMENS
SURVIVAL
PROPECTS IN CHINA DETERIORATED?
Three factors:
1.ONE-CHILD FAMILY
2.GENERAL HEALTH SERVICES CRISIS
3.RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM

Gainful employment
chances of survival

is

not

only

the

factor aff ecting womens

Female employment and female literacy which combine economic

and cultural eff ects are important variables
Equal political Rights and nutrition as well are factors of equal
importance

Countries

Ratio of women to men

Kerala

> 1.03

Europe

1.05

China

0.94

West Asia

0.94

India

0.94

Kerala does not have a defi cit of women because of

Gainful employments
Remarkably high literacy
Inherited properties
High level of communal medicine

If a great number of neglected women (

more hundred million) will be
acknowledged and situations
mentioned are corrected by political
action and public policy then we can
confront the problems facing the world
today