IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v78y2025i4p997-1038.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Missing women in colonial India

Author

Listed:
  • James Fenske
  • Bishnupriya Gupta
  • Cora Neumann

Abstract

We construct novel data on female population shares by age, district, and religion in South Asia from 1881 to 1931. Sex ratios skew male in Northern India and are more balanced in Southern and Eastern India, including Burma. Male‐biased sex ratios emerge most visibly after age 10, and this is not specific to any one region, religion, or time period. Sikhs have the most male‐biased sex ratios, followed by Hindus, Muslims, and Jains. The female share correlates across religious groups within districts. Evidence that sex ratios correlate with suitability for wheat and rice is weaker than suggested by the existing literature.

Suggested Citation

  • James Fenske & Bishnupriya Gupta & Cora Neumann, 2025. "Missing women in colonial India," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 78(4), pages 997-1038, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:78:y:2025:i:4:p:997-1038
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.13413
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13413
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ehr.13413?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:78:y:2025:i:4:p:997-1038. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.