Gender biases in sub‐Saharan Africa: Reply and further evidence

This article is written in response to comments made about an earlier article on gender differentials which can be discerned in anthropometric status and mortality in Africa south of the Sahara. This response provides an opportunity for discussion of newly available data which support the notion that male children are disadvantaged more frequently than female children in this region. In its discussion of anthropometric evidence this article covers methodological issues arising from data availability new empirical evidence available from bivariate tests and empirical evidence from multivariate tests. Consideration of mortality evidence includes a look at the gender differential mortality norm the use of model life table data the new findings derived from recalculation of male excess mortality at various ages in childhood and assertions of the existence of an increasing anti-female mortality bias. Current evidence on gender differentials in the anthropometric status of children available from 121 nationally representative samples covering 70% of the population of the region reveals no significant difference between boys and girls in two-thirds of the samples a significant anti-male bias in one third and a significant anti-female bias in only one sample. This leads to the conclusion that significant gender differentials in anthropometric status place boys not girls at a disadvantage. It is possible that the inferior anthropometric status seen in the boys is indicative of higher levels of morbidity in boys than in girls rather than a nutritional disadvantage. Thus these findings do not imply that females have the advantage in all or most respects only that it is more common for boys to exhibit a disadvantaged anthropometric status in this region.