Women’s rights are good for men’s health

ANN ARBOR-In societies where women are equal to men, males stand a better chance of living longer, a new study shows. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and colleagues found gender differences in mortality rates are higher in more patriarchal societies. Men living in the top 25 percent most patriarchal societies were 31 percent more likely to die than men in the least patriarchal quartile, compared to mortality rates for women. This only includes the societies with high quality infrastructures that provide reliable data; the true difference may be even higher, according to the study led by U-M researcher Daniel Kruger. Gender inequality is inherently related to inequality in general, and this is bad for both men and women's health. Daniel Kruger Males in societies where they are more socially dominant tend to engage in riskier behaviors that can lead to death, Kruger says. These societies also tend to have more resources and social status concentrated in a smaller group of elite men, compared to those that are more egalitarian overall.