Gender Equality and Inequality in Numeracy: The Case of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1880–1949

Abstract

This article outlines the development of gender disparities in education for 28 Latin American and Caribbean countries for the period from 1880 to 1949, using age heaping techniques. We explore in particular the hypothesis of a Ushaped development of women's education during economic development, i.e., a decrease in gender equality at lower levels of overall education, and increasing gender equality at higher levels. For the downward sloping part, we find some evidence, although this part is relatively small. The upward sloping part is strongly confirmed. We also find that non-Hispanic Caribbean countries had substantially lower gender inequality rates than Latin American countries. A second major contribution is to document the development of average numerical abilities (of both genders) in these 28 countries.Keywords: human capital, age heaping, education, gender inequality, numeracy, Latin America JEL Classification: I21, N36, 015 RESUMENEn este artículo se estudian las disparidades de género en numeracy para veintiocho países de América Latina y el Caribe en el período de 1880 a 1949. Con este propósito, el trabajo explora el alcance del denominado «age heaping», el cual suministra una valiosa información sobre la tendencia de las personas a redondear su edad lo cual, indirectamente, proporciona información sobre los cambios en el nivel educativo de un país en el largo plazo. En particular investigamos la hipótesis de un desarrollo en forma «U», es decir, el incremento de las disparidades de género para niveles de educación bajos y la reducción de estas disparidades para niveles de desarrollo más altos. En este sentido, la parte superior de la curva está plenamente confirmada, sin embargo, en la parte inferior con una trayectoria relativamente pequeña, encontramos sólo débiles evidencias.A partir de esta nueva línea de investigación, los resultados del estudio evidencian que por un lado, los países del Caribe no hispánicos tuvieron tasas de desigualdad educativa sustancialmente más bajas que los países latinoamericanos y, por el otro, que la totalidad de los veintiocho países de la muestra ofrecen un incremento en la media de las «habilidades numéri-cas» para ambos sexos en el período.

Age heaping patterns in Mosaic data

“…Overall, we found that sex differences in age heaping across the Mosaic datasets are smaller than might be expected from readings of economic history and demographic literature (e.g., F€ oldv ari, van Leeuwen and van Leeuwen-Li 2012;Manzel and Baten 2009). Though it is true that in the majority of Mosaic populations (67 out of 115) women on average heaped their ages more strongly than men, we also obtained proofs that a reversed pattern was far from rare.…”

“…16 Sex differences in age heaping at the regional level So far we have relied primarily on age heaping estimates for both sexes combined. However, within the general trend of an increase in the number of age heaping studies in recent years, gender-specific analyses have also become increasingly common (Manzel and Baten 2009;De Moor and Van Zanden 2010;F€ oldv ari, van Leeuwen and van Leeuwen-Li 2012). Against a general wisdom that in traditional societies women were generally well behind men in numerical skills (including their ability to report ages properly), these studies found mixed evidence.…”

The long-run impact of human capital on innovation and economic development in the regions of Europe

“…Numeracy is measured by the age heaping method which has been used in an increasing number of recent publications (A'Hearn, Crayen, and Baten 2009;Manzel and Baten 2009;Crayen and Baten 2010;Hippe 2012b;Hippe and Baten 2012;Baten and Hippe 2017;Diebolt, Hippe, and Jaoul-Grammare 2017).…”

Convergence and divergence of numeracy: the development of age heaping in Latin America from the seventeenth to the twentieth century1

“…6 6 A'Hearn, Baten, and Crayen, ‘Quantifying quantitative literacy’; Baten, Crayen, and Manzel, ‘Zahlendisziplin’; De Moor and van Zanden, ‘ “Leeftijdstapelen” ’; Clark, Farewell to alms , pp. 175–81; Crayen and Baten,‘Global trends in numeracy’; Manzel and Baten, ‘Gender equality’; Cinnirella, ‘Nutritional status’; Mironov, ‘Novaya istoricheskaya demografia’; Ó Gráda, ‘Dublin Jewish demography’. …”