Sex Ratios, Economic Power, and Women's Roles: A Theoretical Extension and Empirical Test

Abstract

By elaborating a recent macrostructural theory relating societal-level sex ratios to womens life options it is hypothesized that the influence of imbalanced sex ratios on womens roles is contingent upon womens economic power. Several hypotheses are developed and then tested with data from 111 countries. As predicted by the theory high sex ratios (i.e. a relative undersupply of women) are positively associated with the proportion of women who marry and the fertility rate and inversely associated with womens average age at marriage the female literacy rate and the divorce rate. Importantly however the effects of high sex ratios on womens roles are considerably weaker in countries where womens economic power as indicated by their labor force participation rate is high. The studys findings thus suggest that womens economic power may counteract the tendency for high sex ratios to preserve womens traditional roles. The findings also demonstrate that a countrys level of socioeconomic development as measured by a multi-item index strongly influences womens marital and familial opportunities. Although theories paradigms and conceptual frameworks for explaining cross-cultural variation in womens status abound comparatively few have been subjected to empirical tests. But clearly analyses of this sort are necessary steps in the development of multicausal macrostructural theories of womens life options. The evidence to date argues for a societys sex ratio occupying a prominent explanatory place in these theories.

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