On the economic origins of concerns over women’s chastity

Review of Economic Studies • Vol/Iss. 0(0): unavailable • Oxford University Press • • Published In • Pages: 1-27 •
By Becker, Anke

Abstract

Prevailing anthropological theory holds that social norms restricting the promiscuity of women tend to be more prevalent in pastoralist societies, where the long periods of unmonitored separation between spouses that often arise as a result of animal herding tends to result in stricter repression of female sexuality. This article explores the relationship between several societies' historical reliance on pastoralism and their attitudes towards four topics related to female promiscuity: abortion, female mobility, female promiscuity and female genital mutilation. The author finds all for topics to be significantly correlated with historical reliance on pastoralism.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Ethnographic Atlas (EA)Other Researchers'Used EA data to generate a “reliance on pastoralism” score for all historical ethnic groups represented in the study
World Values Survey (WVS)Other Researchers'Worldwide survey data from 205,201 individuals describing their attitudes towards abortion
Demographic and Health SurveysOther Researchers'Worldwide survey data from over 600,000 individuals describing restrictions on the movement of women and the adherence of women to social norms regarding perceived promiscuity; sample also included responses from 96,471 women throughout Africa regarding g

Hypotheses (4)

HypothesisSupported
An ethnic group’s historical reliance on pastoralism predicts contemporary individual-level variation on attitudes towards abortion within that group.Supported
An ethnic group’s historical reliance on pastoralism predicts the strength of contemporary restrictions on women’s mobility within that group.Supported
An ethnic group’s historical reliance on pastoralism predicts the level of adherence among women in that group to social norms restricting perceived promiscuity.Supported
An ethnic group’s historical reliance on pastoralism predicts the likelihood of infibulation among contemporary female individuals in that group.Supported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: seb.wanggaouette