has already been noted, this is particularly visible in the affluent neighborhoods, where the old and the young are two very opinionated age groups—with opposite views. Taking only what older people say when asked "What is the country's principal economic problem?," the trend is quite straightforward: "bad government" is blamed by 25% of those in the richest neighborhoods, and drops steadily to only 7% in the poorest barrios. And older women in the wealthy neighborhoods were even more strongly critical than men—28% and 21% blamed the government, respectively. This compared with 9% and 5% of the older women and men in the poorest barrios, (8% overall there).

Looked at from a strict gender standpoint, men were more likely to name the war for the country's economic woes (21%, versus15% for women), while women named shortages of goods and inflation (38%, versus 23% for men).

When specifically asked to rate the government's economic management, age proved more of a dividing line than sex, with older people giving the government worse marks than did younger Managuans: 44% of the older people surveyed said the government's economic management was bad or terrible, compared with 29% of the young people. One group that stands out from this pattern is the women from the poorest barrios, who are very critical across all the age groups.

Women are somewhat less involved in the country's political life then are men, and poor women least of all. This shows up in several different ways, among them the greater number of women than men who said they