There are two primary factors where female farmers are at a disadvantage compared to male farmers: agricultural labor and the child dependency ratio. Both male household labor and hired labor were less productive on female plots relative to male plots. One possible explanation is that inferior laborers are allocated to female plots while the superior laborers work on the male plots. In addition, hired labor may also not work as hard when managed by a female. In addition to seeing lower returns to hired labor, the productivity of female managers also suffered due to a shortage of hired labor (an endowment effect) relative to males.