Women Are Shrinking

Most studies about the consequences of height differences are a little disheartening. As I tower at almost 5’3”, it’s discouraging to hear that tall people will most likely get better paying jobs than I will and there is nothing I can do about it, because my height is genetically determined.

A new study on height by the Harvard School of Public Health is putting my first world problem in perspective. Height is much more than a determinant of revenue. It is actually a great indicator of health, good nutrition and poverty over time because the healthier a population gets, the taller it tends to become.

Unfortunately, these Harvard public health specialists have found that the average height of women in 14 African countries has shrunk since 1945 and that it has stagnated in 21 African and South American countries since the end of World War II. The researchers suggest this means “poor women born in the last two decades, especially in Africa, are worse off than their mothers or grandmothers born after World War II.”

The study is based on a comparison of heights between a sample of 365,000 women ages 25 to 49 in 54 countries who had been measured between 1994 and 2008, and compared to the heights of women in 1945. Of the 54 countries studied, only 19, including Bangladesh and Kazakhstan, had a taller female population. Women from Senegal and Chad were found to be the tallest, and those from Guatemala and Bangladesh were the shortest.

The researchers also found that income did influence the results as the richest 20 percent of women had gotten taller. However, the general decline (or stagnation) of women’s heights reveal, according to the authors of the study, “little improvement, and perhaps deterioration, in early childhood living conditions.”

The economist John Komlos, who found in 2010 that African-American women born after 1975 in the United States have gotten shorter, explains loss of height is often witnessed in times of war and famine. It would then not be too much to imagine that the 35 countries where women’s height has decreased have been economically and/or politically unstable for over 60 years and do not seem to be improving.

It’s hard to believe that the fight towards eradicating poverty has made so little headway. This study reminds us that powerful countries may want to rethink the focus of their foreign policies. Women all around the world need to be supported; they are instrumental to the development of these underprivileged countries.

Contact the author here: sedera@morningquickie.com