Surmortalité féminine et condition de la femme (XVIIIe - XIXe siècles). Une vérification empirique

Résumé En Fr

The aim of this study is to test the theory that the exceptionally high death rates of women in certain age groups were related to the general worsening of the conditions women lived under starting in the 18th century. The statics employed allow us to follow the changes in the death rate by age, sex, and class for a specific region starting in the 17th century. On the whole, the tendency was for the death rate to fall for women of childbearing age and to rise for women during their « active years » (10 to 50). A study of death rates due to infectious diseases contracted by mothers shows that advances in medicine during the 19th century had little or no effect on the death rate, since it only seemed to fall in periods when births themselves fell, meaning that from one period to the next the death rate remained relatively stable (about 15 per 1000 cases).

The aim of this study is to test the theory that the exceptionally high death rates of women in certain age groups were related to the general worsening of the conditions women lived under starting in the 18th century. The statics employed allow us to follow the changes in the death rate by age, sex, and class for a specific region starting in the 17th century. On the whole, the tendency was for the death rate to fall for women of childbearing age and to rise for women during their « active years » (10 to 50). A study of death rates due to infectious diseases contracted by mothers shows that advances in medicine during the 19th century had little or no effect on the death rate, since it only seemed to fall in periods when births themselves fell, meaning that from one period to the next the death rate remained relatively stable (about 15 per 1000 cases).