all in all compared to her equivalent a century earlier the average woman in the s could expect to live nearly twice as long marry almost six years later and be literate thanks to years of education attainment his level of education more than doubled from years in the s just shy of functional literacy to years in the s these measures give an idea of how the institutionallegislative environment is biased against women and thus of women s legal standing historically the three panels presented in figure show gendered inheritance practices for immovables in from the murdock data and from the world bank inheritance systems where daughters receive equal shares can be observed in some european countries brazil likely because of the tradition of female inheritance in portugal and in a handful of countries in southern africa and southeast asia by the s substantial changes have taken place