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From: elt@astrovax.UUCP (Ed Turner)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Life Expectancy
Message-ID: <603@astrovax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-May-85 10:05:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: astrovax.603
Posted: Thu May 23 10:05:50 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 25-May-85 00:04:12 EDT
References: <2244@decwrl.UUCP> <1517@orca.UUCP>
Organization: Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
Lines: 16

>  
> Actually, longer life expectancy for women is fairly recent.  About
> a hundred years ago, men were expected to go through at least 2 wives (no
> divorce).  Women died young, mostly of childbirth and complications
> relating to pregnancy and childbirth.  This began to change with Pasteur
> and the advent of antiseptic practices. Then Margaret Sanger came
> along with birth control information for the masses, and women were
> freed from conceiving and bearing too many children too close
> together.  

True.  In fact it is probably reasonable to assume that the biological
(i.e., adaptive) reason for women's greater hardiness is connected to
the need to withstand the stress of repeated childbirths.

Ed Turner
astrovax!elt