Today, women have a mortality advantage at almost all ages in all developed societies. But this has not always been the case. Paleo-demographers are now establishing evidence that there may have been no life expectancy difference between males and females prior to the development of agriculture. Following the development of agriculture, females may have then suffered higher mortality than males. It has not yet been established whether this female disadvantage was brought about by a heavy work burden, high fertility, the microbiological environment or other factors (Boldster and Paine, 1995). The oldest records on mortality are from England and Wales and from Sweden. The data reconstructed for England and Wales show that from the early 17th to the 20th century male and female mortality differed only little. In general males had a slight advantage in the 17th and 18th centuries, but females enjoyed lower mortality during some periods. The male–female difference varied from 0 to 2 years of life expectancy at birth. For example, between 1625 and 1649 life expectancy at birth in England and Wales was 38.7 years for males and 37.6 for females; from 1725 to 1749 it was of 37.4 years for females, while male life expectancy at birth was lower, at 35.8 years. In a later period this pattern changes once again, with males having a slight advantage. From 1775 to 1799 men were living up to 40.8 and women to 39.5 years (Wrigley et al. 1998).
http://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-1999-009.pdf