Historical availability of arable land affects contemporaneous female labor and health outcomes.

ABSTRACT: We contribute to the understanding of mechanisms underlying deep-rooted gender norms by exploring the link between the historical availability of arable land and contemporary gender outcomes. We argue that an abundance of arable land in historical times, i.e., pre-industrial period, required more workers in the fields resulting in norms where women worked and contributed from outside the home as well. Consequently, these societies emphasized women's health due to its positive effect on their productivity in the fields. Moreover, this economic contribution provided women greater bargaining power in the allocation of intrahousehold resources. The historical avail- ability of arable land for a nation is measured as the weighted mean of the shares of its constituent ethnic groups' ancestral la

SUBMITTER: Jha CK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12321104 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature