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Primary Submission Category: Gender

Gender Inequality and Women’s Health and Well-Being in Developing Countries: The Moderating Role of Socioeconomic Status

Authors:  Samia Sultana, Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell,

Presenting Author: Samia Sultana*

An established literature suggests an inverse association between gender inequality in the labor market and women’s health and well-being such that women’s health tends to be poorer in countries with greater gender disparities. However, few if any studies has examined whether gender inequality at the country-level is more strongly associated with health among less advantaged SES groups. To address this gap, we examined the interactive effects of gender inequality in labor force participation and household income on women’s health and well-being in developing countries. Data from the World Values Survey (2017–2022) included 33,822 women from 45 developing countries and were merged with labor force participation data to assess the impact of gender inequality on women’s self-assessed health and life satisfaction across income groups. Results showed that when all income groups were considered together, gender inequality was a significant predictor of women’s life satisfaction (B = -0.15, 95% CI [-0.26, -0.03], p = .013), but not self-reported health. The interaction between gender inequality and household income was significant or marginally significant, such that women from low-income households in countries with high labor force inequality reported significantly lower odds of good health (OR = 0.89, 95% CI [0.82, 0.97], p = .012) and lower life satisfaction (B = -0.23, 95% CI [-0.47, 0.01], p = .054) compared to their counterparts in countries with low labor force inequality. This pattern was similar for middle-income households, while women from high-income households were relatively unaffected by labor force inequality. The results extend previous research by showing that the association between gender inequality and women’s health may be largely driven by less advantaged socioeconomic groups, and highlight the need to consider mechanisms linking gender inequality to health among women in low-income households.