Trends in gender differences in accidents mortality: Relationships to changing gender roles and other societal trends

This study tests five hypotheses concerning trends in gender differences in accidents mortality and accident-related behavior, using data for the US, UK, France, Italy, and Japan, 1950-98. As predicted by the Convergence Hypothesis, gender differences have decreased for amount of driving, motor vehicle accidents mortality, and occupational accidents mortality. However, for many types of accidents mortality, gender differences were stable or increased; these trends often resulted from the differential impact on male and female mortality of general societal trends such as increased illicit drug use or improved health care. Similarly, trends in gender differences in accidentrelated behavior have shown substantial variation and appear to have been influenced by multiple factors, including gender differences in rates of adoption of different types of innovations. This article is part of Demographic Research Special Collection 4, “Human Mortality over Age, Time, Sex, and Place: The 1 HMD Symposium”. Please see Volume 13, Publications 13-10 through 13-20. 1 Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6018, USA. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6018, USA. E-mail: [email protected] 3 Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6018, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Waldron, McCloskey & Earle: Trends in gender differences in accidents mortality 416 http://www.demographic-research.org