A survey of the major literature of the Western World from 7 B.C. to 1900 A.D. shows that the number of elderly males portrayed was about three times that of elderly females. While certain factors such as the gender of the authors or the themes of the works, may have affected this proportion, the authors of this study believe that the much larger proportion of elderly males in the literature surveyed reflects the make-up of past societies closely enough to support Santene's contention that old age was not a female world in the past and may not be a female world everywhere in the present or in the future.
