Gender Preference

Gender Preference Nowadays, most people have accepted many new ideas, such as couples living together before marriage, men staying home as home-husbands and divorce. However, in developing countries, a significant proportion of the population are still holding a very serious preference for male offspring and yearning to have a male baby, despite the fact that females can take care of their parents physically and psychologically far better than their male peers. It is worth looking into the reason for and some negative ongoing consequences of this male preference. The explanation can be traced to the traditional male-centered culture. Since the primitive era, women have become the belongings of their husbands, and their major job was producing a male heir for their husband. This is because only males can preserve the family name and the inheritance. In addition, as Tina Rosenberg described in her article “The Daughter Deficit”, a son is a financial necessary for parents. Only sons take responsibility to look after their aged parents, and daughters have limited contact with their parents soon after they become someone’s wife. If a couple couldn’t produce a son, they would think they are the most miserable couple in the world and would suffer long-term loneliness in their old age. Moreover, some countries hold a very strange superstition, that if a woman gives birth to more than 3 daughters, her husband will die. It is hardly surprising that the strong determination to have baby boys can lead to catastrophic consequences. After a long history of son preference stemming from the old culture, some countries are now facing very serious gender imbalance. This results from the extreme measures which have been used to get rid of an unwanted baby girl, for some people decide to go to any lengths to get the type of baby they want. The first of them is sex-selective abortion. Now, high technology like ultrasound scanning makes it very easy and