{"id":22665,"date":"2025-05-27T12:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T12:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/?p=22665"},"modified":"2025-05-27T13:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T13:16:50","slug":"money-over-birth-order-equality-and-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/money-over-birth-order-equality-and-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"(English) Money Over Birth Order: Equality and Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

D\u00e9sol\u00e9, cet article est seulement disponible en English<\/a>.<\/p>

<\/p>\n

A study suggests that money and opportunity, rather than \u2018hierarchy of birth\u2019 \u2013 plays the greatest role in people\u2019s life outcomes.<\/em><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

A study carried out in Madagascar investigating the effects of \u2018eldest daughter syndrome\u2019 appears to show that wealth and opportunity, rather than \u2018hierarchy of birth\u2019, have the greatest impact on people\u2019s experience and achievements.<\/h4>\n

In research carried-out by the University of Clermont-Auvergne with Malagasy girls and young women aged 10-22, it was shown that first-born girls do have different experiences than their siblings, including being 23 per cent more likely to marry at 19 or younger, and 1.1 per cent less likely to complete post-secondary education.<\/h4>\n

The study\u2019s authors Claire Ricard and Francesca Marchetta note: \u2018Firstborns in Madagascar transition into adulthood earlier than their younger siblings.<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

\u2018Our findings suggest that later-born children benefit from greater parental investment in education. This leads to better schooling outcomes and delayed entry into the labour market.<\/em><\/span>\u2019<\/h4>\n

But while it seems the order in which children are born can affect their outcomes, and it is certainly true that a child\u2019s gender is an important factor in their opportunities, the study also underlines that poverty and related factors, including ill-health, lack of access to education, and hunger \u2013 factors little- or unrelated to whether one is the oldest or youngset child, play a far greater part.<\/h4>\n

\u2018Oldest daughter syndrome\u2019 is the suggestion that firstborn daughters \u2018must grow up faster\u2019 \u2013 that they are expected to play a greater role in childcare and other household activities, than their younger siblings.<\/h4>\n

But when analysed in a little more depth, two striking factors appear.<\/h4>\n

First, in societies of all levels of wealth, from the world\u2019s richest to its poorest nations, there does not appear to be as great a difference between first-born girls and first-born boys, as there is between first-born children of any gender, and their younger siblings.<\/h4>\n

This may indicate that the inequality and challenges girls and women face in all parts of the world appear to be of far greater significance than whether they are first- or subsequent-born children.<\/h4>\n

Second, the studies which have so far been performed on the \u2018syndrome\u2019 show wildly different \u2018results\u2019 based on a society\u2019s wealth: that is, in the world\u2019s richest countries, first-born sons and daughters tend to have higher educational attainment, stronger cognitive skills, enjoy better job prospects and earn higher salaries than their younger siblings.<\/h4>\n

In the lowest-income countries, including Madagascar, the \u2018syndrome\u2019 has comparatively negative effects \u2013 the eldest born children finish school earlier, marry earlier and may earn less than their brothers and sisters.<\/h4>\n

In middle-income states, both positive and negative outcomes have been reported.<\/h4>\n

Ricard and Marchetta comment: \u2018Our findings point to economic constraints as the main driver for firstborns transitioning into adulthood earlier than their younger siblings<\/em> <\/span>(in Madagascar).<\/h4>\n

\u2018In poorer households, particularly in rural areas, firstborn children are often asked to help out financially. This often comes at the cost of their own education. Later-born children, by contrast, receive more investment in their schooling. This may compensate for their limited access to other resources, such as land.<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

\u2018We find no birth order advantage in wealthier households or among families where parents have some education. This again highlights poverty as a key factor shaping these patterns.<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

\u2018To sum up, our research shows that, in Madagascar, both male and female firstborns face an earlier transition into adulthood. They leave school and enter the labour market sooner.<\/em><\/span>\u2019<\/h4>\n

At Money for Madagascar, we work with Malagasy children, young adults, and adult men and women.<\/h4>\n

We know, from listening to them and from our and our partners\u2019 direct experience, that women are faced with severe inequality and lower access to success than men.<\/h4>\n

But we also know that Madagascar is the world\u2019s fourth-poorest country, that hunger and poverty are the reality for almost all the country\u2019s men, women and children, and that almost exactly four in every five (79.9 per cent) Malagasy people live on or below \u00a31.73 per day, the global poverty baseline.<\/h4>\n

The challenges faced by Malagasy people are faced by almost all Malagasy people, and are deserved by none.<\/h4>\n

That is why we, in listening to and working with Malagasy people, ensure that we provide a platform from which all can succeed \u2013 women and girls<\/a> as well as boys and men, young people, farmers<\/a>, entrepreneurs, environmental protectors<\/a> and communities as a whole.<\/h4>\n

Find out more<\/a> about our work here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D\u00e9sol\u00e9, cet article est seulement disponible en English. A study suggests that money and opportunity, rather than \u2018hierarchy of birth\u2019 \u2013 plays the greatest role in people\u2019s life outcomes. A study carried out in Madagascar investigating the effects of \u2018eldest daughter syndrome\u2019 appears to show that wealth and opportunity, rather than \u2018hierarchy of birth\u2019, have the greatest impact on people\u2019s experience and achievements. In research carried-out by the University of Clermont-Auvergne with Malagasy girls and young women aged 10-22, it was shown that first-born girls do have different experiences than their siblings, including being 23 per cent more likely to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":22525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[301,217,195,220,260,311,286,236,187,188,289,261,218,352,287],"tags":[293,358,255,115,205,480,481,354],"class_list":["post-22665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-babies","category-children","category-development","category-education","category-education-for-life","category-gender","category-girls","category-livelihoods","category-madagascar","category-malagasy","category-poverty","category-protecting-and-enabling-vulnerable-children","category-vulnerable-children","category-women","category-young-women","tag-boys","tag-equality","tag-girls","tag-madagascar","tag-malagasy","tag-men","tag-oldest-daughter-syndrome","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22668,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22665\/revisions\/22668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneyformadagascar.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}