Son preference in China
[2] Key factors driving the son preference include the economic impact on families, since men are expected to care for their parents in old age, while women are not.
[3] Further, Chinese agrarian society influences sex preference, as agriculture is often perceived as men's work in China.
[6] For thousands of years in China, most people preferred sons to daughters because of their greater earning potential, especially in agrarian communities where strength-based tasks such as hunting, animal husbandry, and plowing are major sources of income.
[9]: 214 In the People's Republic of China, local government bureaus and work units composed cultural works such as songs and dramas in an effort to overturn traditional cultural practices deemed inconsistent with modernization, namely the traditional son preference and trends of marrying earlier and having larger families.
[9]: 214 In 1986, the National Commission for Family Planning and the Ministry of Health prohibited prenatal sex determination except when diagnosing hereditary diseases.
[9]: 191 Since the 1990s, government efforts to eliminate the traditional son preference and to promote son/daughter equality in family planning have increased.
Although the expansionary of urbanisation has increased in recent decades throughout China, agriculture still plays a role in gender bias.
Traditionally, once a girl is married, she becomes part of her husband's family, which means she is no longer responsible for her parents' care as they age.
[17] New developments in ultrasound technology enabled Chinese parents to know their child's sex before birth, leading some to seek out sex-selective abortion to make sure they have boys.
[24] It is demonstrated that China has consistently reported high SRBs in recent decades because of the effect of preferences for sons.
[27] Supporters of this explanation have pointed to data showing that across cultures, the majority of crime is committed by low-status and unmarried males.
According to some research, the main reason for the increasing number of sex workers in China may be related to domestic socioeconomic inequality.
[33] Ironically, a shortage of women may lead to increased female status, causing the son preference to decrease.
[35] Within China, a strong preference for sons and the practice of sex-selective abortion have resulted in a staggering imbalance, with an excess of 32 million males under the age of 20.
This son preference has also triggered postnatal discrimination against girls, manifesting in a range of harmful practices that span from infanticide to the neglect of essential healthcare and nutrition, frequently culminating in untimely mortality.
Although this policy was introduced as long term and aimed to reduce the number of family members, this measure was not uniformly implemented.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women produced a report to assess the issue of male overpopulation in China and propose solutions.
