Gender inequality in a transition economy: heights and sexual height dimorphism in Southwestern France, 1640–1850

Abstract

The secular trend in average female and male adult height can reveal sex-specific patterns in resource allocation as final heights, to a large extent, reflect access to food and the degree of parental investment in nutrition, particularly over early childhood. This article examines the issue by reconstructing the long-term evolution of heights and sexual height dimorphism for the cohorts born between the 1640s and the 1850s in Southwestern France, an area characterized by among the highest levels of gender inequality and the lowest level of development in France at the time. To make so I rely on hospital, passports, and prison records and show how these different sources can be combined to study long-term patterns in adult statures. The analysis reveals that sexual height dimorphism charted an inverted U-shaped trajectory in the period considered. The study of the correlates of gender dimorphism also suggests that this varied in relation to the amount of resources available as well as the demographic cycle. The progressive reduction in Malthusian constraints and the early French fertility decline were accompanied by a general reduction in inequality possibly associated with an increase in expenditure on female quality.