MODERNIZATION,GENDER EQUALITY,AND MORTALITY RATES IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Although greater accessibility to health care and increasing levels of education among residents of less developed countries have clearly contributed to mortality decline, few theoretical models to date have adequately explained the relationship. A comprehensive model of mortality decline should document both the factors that directly drive down mortality rates and the underlying structural dynamics that give rise to such direct effects. The present article draws on fundamental diffusion concepts and a psychosociological model of modernization that attempts to explain how less developed countries increase their availability of health care services and reduce gender inequality. Two diffusion mechanisms are argued to be operating: the transfer of raw material goods and technology through the international capitalist exchange system and the transfer of modern values, ideas, practices, and knowledge through the mass media. The model was tested with data on four measures of mortality for a sample of 43 less developed countries circa 1993. Partial support is found for the model, and suggestions for future research are made.