Male Household Members Research Articles

Supply Response in an Agrarian Economy with Non-Symmetric Gender Relations

There is a growing recognition that gender relations matter for supply response to devaluation and other structural adjustment policies in sub-Saharan Africa. But, most household models that introduce gender differentiation nevertheless preserve an essential symmetry between male and female household members, and do not capture elements of subordination or coercion in male–female relations. This paper seeks to contribute by developing a model based on Stackelberg-type equations, in which the husband occupies the position of “firstmover,” reflecting his power to set the parameters for women's choices. The model is contextualized with reference to Tanzania.

Familial and socioeconomic influences on children's well-being: An examination of preschool children in Kenya

As patterns of family formation change, it is important to know how children's lives are affected by their parents' marital and socioeconomic circumstances. Using data from the 1993 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, this study shows that children of never married and formerly married mothers have significantly higher probabilities of polio dropout and acute undernutrition than those of monogamously married mothers. The number of male household members of working age greatly enhances the chances of full immunization and the nutritional status of children whose mothers were previously married. For children of never married mothers, the benefits of residing with males of working age are largely a function of ethnicity. The results also show that, although children are not disadvantaged nutritionally when their fathers have more than one wife, polygyny is associated with a higher probability of polio dropout and lower probability of full immunization than monogamy. Higher socioeconomic status is associated with a greater probability of full immunization and a lower probability of malnutrition but socioeconomic factors do not explain the effects of mothers' marital status. The findings underscore the complex realities of family interaction and the importance of the broader social context in accounting for variations in child welfare across diverse marital situations.

Intertemporal substitution in labor supply: Micro evidence from rural India

This paper tests the hypothesis of intertemporal substitution in labor supply using time allocation data on adult male and female members of agricultural households in India. The robustness of the results with respect to functional form specification and credit constraints is examined. The female intertemporal elasticity of substitution is found to be significant but low, similar to estimates from the US. Elasticity estimates for males are negative or zero. Tests of symmetry and additive separability proved inconclusive as they are quite sensitive to functional form. In addition, the empirical analysis revealed significant differences in the elasticity of substitution of females depending on land ownership and whether the period of reference falls during planting and harvesting or after harvesting. These differences suggest that credit constraints limit the possibilities of substitution of labor supply across time.

Gender relations in the classical Greek household: the archaeological evidence

Despite the amount of textual material surviving from classical Greece, our knowledge of the household has remained limited because of the selectivity and orientation of those texts. In this paper, archaeological remains of late 5th- to late 4th-cent. houses are explored in order to shed light on aspects of domestic relations that recur most frequently in the sources: the relationship between male and female household members, and the way in which this was reinforced through the organization of the domestic environment. The traditional picture of a house divided into male and female areas is an over-simplification of a complex pattern of social relationships. A broader approach focuses on interaction between men and women, rather than on women's activity in isolation. The resultant, more detailed model for gender relations offers a glimpse of variability through space and time in how relationships were expressed spatially, and suggests the possibility of differences in the relationships themselves at different levels of the social hierarchy.

The epidemiology of burns in rural Ethiopia.

The aims were (1) to review inpatient burn records of Attat Hospital (Ethiopia) for the years 1983-1989, and (2) to determine the prevalence of burns and knowledge of first aid for burns in 16 communities served by Attat Hospital in rural Ethiopia. A retrospective review of all records was used to describe characteristics of the inpatient with burns and cost of the service. Adult members of a systematic random sample (20%) of households from 16 communities (total population = 10,183) were interviewed. Questions focused on what to do to put out the fire, what to do for first aid for a burn, the major cause of adult and childhood burns, and a history of burn in any household member. The study was conducted at Attat Hospital and in the surrounding Gurage-Chaha Region of West Shoa Province of Ethiopia. There were 271 burn inpatients during the 7 year period from 1983-1989; 163 households were selected for interview; there were no refusals. During the 7 year period the cost of tertiary inpatient burn treatment at Attat Hospital has been estimated to be US$86,366.72, of which the hospital absorbed 66%. From community based information the cumulative incidence of burns in this population was found to be 5-11%. The absence of a cumulative increase in burns over time in men suggests that female respondents may not fully recall burn histories in adult male household members. The study population possess inadequate knowledge regarding burn prevention and burn first aid. Deleterious traditional compounds were used on 32% of burn patients in the villages. Since most burns are related to household fires, generally in the domain of women in rural Ethiopia, women's groups may be the most appropriate setting for education on burn prevention and first aid. Burn prevention and first aid education should also be recognised as a priority in schools and in the training of community health workers.

Association of Smoking and Alcohol Drinking with Residential Fire Injuries

To investigate whether tobacco, alcohol, and their combined use are important risk factors for fire injuries, the authors analyzed data from a population-based case-control study in King County, Washington, between 1986 and 1987. Cases (n = 116) were households with at least one fatal or nonfatal unintentional residential fire injury reported to the Washington State Fire Incident Reporting System from 1984 through 1985. Controls were selected by random digit dialing (n = 256). After adjustment for household size, number of male household members, total household income, and education of the head of the household, the odds ratio for fire injury in households whose members collectively smoked 1-9 cigarettes per day was 1.5 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.6-4.2) relative to households with no smokers; for 10-19 cigarettes per day, the odds ratio was 6.6 (95% CI 2.5-17.5), and for 20 or more cigarettes per day, it was 3.6 (95% CI 1.9-7.2). Although households with alcohol drinkers who consumed five or more drinks per occasion were found to be at increased risk in the crude analysis, multivariate analysis suggested that this was partly because drinkers tended to live in households with higher smoking levels. Thus, even though households with alcohol drinkers who consume five or more drinks per occasion may be at increased risk of residential fire injury, smoking appears to be the more important underlying risk factor.

Engendering Visible and invisible ceramic artifacts, especially dairy vessels

This paper moves between two fields—modern artifact analysis (with its practitioners) and 18th-century culture—to show the veils in place that make certain sectors of the population less visible in present-day artifact interpretation. The article assumes that artifacts were not and are not passive entities, but items useful in a variety of ways: as practical tools and as fluid symbolic indicators of masculine and feminine activity. How do artifacts shift from male to female or female to male roles in a home? What happens when they are enmeshed in a folk-oriented mode of production such as family-based dairying? Essentially, when traditionally feminine products such as butter or cheese could be reliably made as household surpluses, women sold them. As the market for dairy products grew, their production was appropriated and reallocated to male arenas—first within and by male household members and later within a factory-based system. This raises the question of whether the movement of dairy production from a female folk world to a male folk world to capitalism can be perceived through artifact analysis. If not, why not? Is it because the events that took place are hidden by the past, or is it that they are masked in the present by modern analytical concerns? A deconstruction of artifact analysis is presented as a guide to this conundrum.

Women's work or household strategies?

Women's work or household strategies considers some conceptual and methodological issues in seeking a better understanding of the position of women in urban areas. The author discusses the nature of the "household" and draws on the literature to highlight the unequal balance between male and female household members in terms of power and access to knowledge, resources and income.

The subsistence crisis and migration in the Sahelian Zone of the Sudan ?

Burush is a small village in the N Sahelian Zone of the Sudan, whose population are basically sedentary agriculturists. The recurring drought conditions of the last two decades have significantly influenced the local resource base, so that the subsistence of the majority of the households was highly challenged. Nevertheless, the people are still surviving and resisting. The explanation of this resistence can be sought in the endogenous coping mechanisms adopted by the people. One of these mechanisms is migration, especially the seasonal labour migration of the heads and grown-up members of households, which used, even in good years, to be highly integrated in the strategies of survival of the majority of households. However under the recurring crop failures and the growing competition in the seasonal labour opportunities, this seasonal migration is changing gradually into stays of longer duration in the traditional destinations of seasonal labour. On the other hand, the male members of households are actively involved in migration of long duration, especially into the urban centres. Yet, the constributions of these migrant members to the subsistence of their households are limited, because of the rising costs of living in uurban centres as compared with the incomes. The rehabilitation of Burush lies obviously in the development of long-term strategies which aim at strengthening the endogenous resilience mechanisms.

The epidemiology of schistosomiasis in the later stages of a control programme based on chemotherapy: the Basrah study. 1. Descriptive epidemiology and parasitological results

The association between infection with Schistosoma haematobium and various factors including water contact pattern, past history of haematuria and treatment for schistosomiasis and cercarial dermatitis was investigated in Southern Iraq. The study covered mainly primary schoolchildren in different areas of Basrah and in Al-maadan locality where the majority of households with infected schoolchildren occurred. Urine examination was by the sedimentation and Nuclepore nitration methods. S. haematobium infection was very focal in distribution. There was evidence of local transmission in the Al-maadan locality, while in Abu-al-Jawzi schistosomiasis might have been acquired from endemic areas outside Basrah governorate. Swimming, history of haematuria, and history of treatment of schistosomiasis were significantly associated with the level of infection determined by egg count. Cercarial dermatitis, and bathing, washing clothes and fetching water were not significantly associated. The prevalence of infection among male members of households of infected children was significantly higher than that among male members of the remaining households in Al-maadan. There was no evidence of clustering of cases at household level. The implications of these findings for control and for future research on schistosomiasis in Basrah are discussed.

Women, remittances, and reproduction

Reproduction has become a central issue in the analysis of peasant households that supply migrant labor to capitalist enterprises. Many have argued that the physiological reproduction of peasantries in underdeveloped countries has been accompanied by the reproduction of their social and economic conditions. When peasant households finance reproduction, they subsidize the continued strength and expansion of capitalist enterprises that depend on their surplus labor, as well as maintain peasant relations and techniques of production. Jamaican peasant women use remittances from seasonal labor migrants to the United States to help meet the costs of reproducing their households and their social and economic conditions, without significant improvement. In addition, migrants' wives and girlfriends must increase their work on their peasant farms to compensate for the absence of male household members. This supports arguments that peasant participation in wage labor markets, a common means of integrating peasant households into wider social and economic systems, can result in the conservation of peasant techniques and relations of production, as well as the further subordination of women to household production and reproduction processes. [British West Indies, peasants, labor migration, international development, women's roles]

Same City, Different Worlds

Studies of residential location typically have treated the household unit as an undifferentiated whole and have not accounted for divergent needs and desires between male and female household members. Using the factorial survey technique, this article examines different preferences for neighborhood characteristics between men and women, focusing on women with varying family and labor market responsibilities. Based on a sample of 177 Syracuse, New York, metropolitan residents, this article shows the desires of men, housewives, single women, and employed women for varying combinations of neighborhood attributes. Findings show that men's desires for neighborhoods suit them well for the typical suburb, whereas women's desired neighborhood characteristics are found both in suburbs and in central cities. Women expressed contradictory desires, wanting the density, residential homogeneity, and racial and socio-economic composition of suburbs, but with the diversity and proximity of services found in cities. These findings suggest that for women suburbs need to include higher densities, public services, and transportation, but should retain much of their residential ambience.

Vasodilators in Peripheral Vascular Disease

STUDY OBJECTIVE--The aims were (1) to review inpatient burn records of Attat Hospital (Ethiopia) for the years 1983-1989, and (2) to determine the prevalence of burns and knowledge of first aid for burns in 16 communities served by Attat Hospital in rural Ethiopia. DESIGN--A retrospective review of all records was used to describe characteristics of the inpatient with burns and cost of the service. Adult members of a systematic random sample (20%) of households from 16 communities (total population = 10,183) were interviewed. Questions focused on what to do to put out the fire, what to do for first aid for a burn, the major cause of adult and childhood burns, and a history of burn in any household member. SETTING--The study was conducted at Attat Hospital and in the surrounding Gurage-Chaha Region of West Shoa Province of Ethiopia. STUDY SUBJECTS--There were 271 burn inpatients during the 7 year period from 1983-1989; 163 households were selected for interview; there were no refusals. MAIN RESULTS--During the 7 year period the cost of tertiary inpatient burn treatment at Attat Hospital has been estimated to be US$86,366.72, of which the hospital absorbed 66%. From community based information the cumulative incidence of burns in this population was found to be 5-11%. The absence of a cumulative increase in burns over time in men suggests that female respondents may not fully recall burn histories in adult male household members. The study population possess inadequate knowledge regarding burn prevention and burn first aid. Deleterious traditional compounds were used on 32% of burn patients in the villages. CONCLUSIONS--Since most burns are related to household fires, generally in the domain of women in rural Ethiopia, women9s groups may be the most appropriate setting for education on burn prevention and first aid. Burn prevention and first aid education should also be recognised as a priority in schools and in the training of community health workers.