Global sex differences in hygiene norms and their relation to sex equality

Abstract

Strict norms about hygiene may sometimes have health benefits but may also be a burden. Based on research in the United States, it has been suggested that women traditionally shoulder responsibility for hygiene standards and therefore tend to have stricter views on hygiene. However, there is little systematic research on sex differences in hygiene norms at the global scale. We set up two hypotheses: (1) Stricter hygiene norms among women than among men is a global phenomenon. (2) The size of this sex difference varies across nations with the level of sex equality. We examine these hypotheses using data from a recent international survey (N = 17,632). Participants in 56 countries were asked for their views of where it is not appropriate for people to spit and in which situations people should wash their hands. As a measure of sex equality, we use an existing country-level measure of attitudes to equality between the sexes, available for 49 nations in the study. Stricter hygiene norms among women than among men are observed almost everywhere, but there are a few exceptions (most notably Nigeria and Saudi Arabia). The size of the sex difference in hygiene norms varies strongly with the level of sex equality, but in a non-linear way. The sex difference is most pronounced in moderately egalitarian countries with the highest recorded difference being in Chile. In more egalitarian parts of the world, more sex equality is associated with a smaller sex difference in hygiene norms. In the less egalitarian parts of the world, the opposite relation holds. We offer an interpretation in terms of what different levels of sex equality mean for the content of sex roles.

Gender differences in competitiveness and fear of failure help explain why girls have lower life satisfaction than boys in gender equal countries

“…As different levels of structural gender equality may result in the same outcome, the GGGI may be less suitable to represent sex equality as a causal factor (Richardson et al, 2020). Consistent with this view, several prior studies predicting gender differences by gender equality have found stronger results for normative gender equality than for gender equality in outcomes (Eriksson et al, 2020(Eriksson et al, , 2022. In the present study we include both measures of gender equality as detailed below.…”

“…For a few countries there was data on the underlying jobs-related item but not on the full EQUALITY index. As the jobs item is extremely strongly correlated with the full index, r = 0.97, we used the country means for the jobs item in a linear prediction to estimate EQUALITY index scores for these countries, following Eriksson et al (2022) . The resulting scores are reported in Supplementary Table 1 .…”

Oral Health Status and Hygiene Practices Among Visually Impaired Adolescents From a School in Kenya

“…In this study, gender was shown to in uence the frequency of toothbrush replacement (p = 0.04), with more female participants replacing toothbrushes at 3 months. It has been suggested that women practice stricter hygiene norms compared to men, and this might have informed their decision on toothbrush replacement (24). An association was also reported between toothbrush replacement and age (p = 0.04), with older children more likely to change toothbrushes at three months compared to younger children.…”

The Meaning of “Hygiene” and Its Linked Practices in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh

“…Thus, a gap exists between the perceived benefits of hygiene practices among local people and the biomedical view of hygiene. Although there have been many studies that have described the differences between the hygiene practices of different genders including hand hygiene [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ], more in-depth research on the differences between the personal hygiene practices of different genders should be undertaken in the future and should consider the relationships between gender-defined hygiene practices, the norms/reasons behind those practices and disease prevalence. Thus, interventions should focus on the contextual meaning of hygiene and tailor their motivational communication messages according to the context and society at which they are aimed in order to achieve the expected health benefits.…”