How has life changed in 200 years?
Economic historians are attempting to answer that question in a very detailed way by creating an interconnected historical databases of the last five centuries, with special focus on the past 200 years.
In a report released Oct. 2 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s How was life, Global well-being since 1820 (read it online) looks at various social and economic measures of human progress. The findings contain interesting data and correlations on a number of social, economic and institutional indicators.
One of the chapters in the report focuses on gender inequality, which somewhat of a standout in the research because the study shows the importance of women for a wide range of development outcomes, and concludes that "addressing gender equality is an important part of any development initiative."
Inheritance
When it comes to equality between men and women, the world remains an unequal playing field. The report identifies property rights and ownership as indications of institutional inequality. "It becomes clear from the first map that gender equal inheritance systems were far from the norm in the early 20th century," the report finds.
Countries with gender-equal inheritance
Yes
No
No data
Suffrage
In 1913, only New Zealand, Australia, Finland and Norway had granted women the vote. The 1950 map shows a substantial extension of suffrage to women, though regional disparities are also present. Western Europe, North America and Australia, with the exception of Switzerland, had granted women the right to vote by 1950.
By 2000, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia remained the only countries still denying this right to women. However, in 2011 Saudi Arabia, the last country in the world to deny this right, granted women the vote for the next elections, which will take place in 2015.
Countries with female suffrage
Yes
No
No data
The graph above shows that the two big jumps in extending the vote to women came after the First and Second World Wars.
Number of countries
150
100
50
0
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
2000
Female suffrage, 1895-2000
End of
World War 2
End of
World War 1
There has been significant improvement in life expectancy in recent decades. This is visible from individual country trends and the overall world average. Since 1960, countries characterized by large gender differences in life expectancy, have almost closed the gap, the report finds.
Gains in life expectancy at birth by gender, 1950-2000
| Region | Gain in life expectancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | |
| Eastern Europe | 8.1 | 10.3 |
| Western Offshoots (US, Can, Aus) | 9.8 | 9.4 |
| Western Europe | 9.9 | 11.1 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 10.2 | 9.2 |
| Latin America and Caribbean | 17.6 | 20 |
| South and South-East Asia | 19.7 | 21.7 |
| East Asia | 21.5 | 24.3 |
| Middle East and North Africa | 23.2 | 23.6 |
The chapter identifies two main messages can be drawn from the research: There has been significant progress over the 20th century in terms of achieving gender equality, but there is still a long way to go as gender gaps persist in many dimensions. And, secondly, regional differences are not a recent phenomenon but have deep historical roots.