Assessing gender discrimination during infancy and childhood using twins: The case of rural Spain, 1750-1950

This article uncovers the existence of discriminatory practices in pre-industrial Spain by examining fate twins. The analysis complete parish registers a small rural area (17 villages) shows that female twins were discriminated both at birth and during infancy childhood. Not only sex ratio baptism was extremely unbalanced, but discrimination continued throughout childhood resulted excess mortality, despite males are biologically more vulnerable. Although their high mortality rates question idea constituted an exogenous shock to family decisions due impact budget, studying helps shedding light on patterns because many families prioritised male enhance survival chances.