Son preference is often considered as a recent phenomenon whereas it is an old characteristic of the Chinese society. A long time before the 1979 one-child policy, sex ratio was already unbalanced between boys and girls, due to a high number of infanticides.

Normally, the natural higher proportion of boys at birth is compensated by their higher mortality rate. But in China, girls are more likely to be neglected during their childhood and receive less medical treatments than boys. As a result, the sex ratio, instead of decreasing, grows higher through agesAttané Isabelle, « En Chine, des millions de femmes “manquantes” », Outre-Terre, 2006/2 no 15, p. 471-479..

This unbalance ratio was further reinforced by the introduction of the one-child policy and (consequential) sex-selective abortion. Following the implementation of the one-child policy, sex-selective technology spread in China around 1985. At the same date, sex ratio at birth raised sharply, allowing researchers to think that these methods are used to decide to keep or not the foetus according to its gender.

Data

In industrialized countries, the sex ratio at birth ranges from 103 to 106 boys for 100 girls. In China, the same ratio went from 106 in 1979 to 117 in 2001Therese Hesketh, Li Lu, Zhu Wei Xing, “The Effect of China’s One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years” in The New England Journal of Medicine, 2005..

Explanations

One-child policy

The one-child policy is often shown as the main reason for son preference in China. This policy was introduced in China in 1979. Back then, it was shown as a temporary measure implemented in order to reduce the number of members in a family and to have a stronger economic growth, as a long-term objective. This policy was not uniform as some couples were allowed to have more than one child, under specific conditions. Between others, in some parts of rural China, having a second child is allowed when the first one is a girl.

Taken alone, the one-child policy cannot explain the son preference. In fact, it is necessary to look at social and economic factors to understand the “need” to have a son as it is experienced by many families in China.

Social factors

The changing role of women through lifetime

Through their lifetime, women have different roles, depending on their age and their place in the family. These different roles are essential to understand son preferenceMonica Das Guota, Jiang Zenghua, Li Bohua, Xie Zhenming, Woojin Chung, Bae Hwa-Ok, “Why is son preference so persistent in East and South Asia? A cross-country study of China, India and the Republic of Korea”, a World Bank research paper..

• Girls: what is at stake for girls is marrying. As a result, it is not that important to provide them with education, because if they work, their earnings will belong to their husband’s families. The girl’s family has therefore no interest in insuring that the girl will be educated (education not being seen as necessary to do a good marriage).

• Women: they almost exclusively have a reproductive role. What is at stake is giving birth to at least one son and then, take care of the family and the household.

• Elder women: women finally have their more important role in the last years of their life. Once retired, the man becomes more unassuming, whereas the woman keeps taking care of the household and the education of her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It is important to remember than having the support of her son is very important for the mother, so it is fundamental for her to build a strong relationship with him from the beginning of his life. Nevertheless, the damper of this empowerment is that the mother will be likely to marginalize the son’s wife, in order to insure her position. Therefore, we can observe her a vicious circle of the subordination of women.

China as a patriarchal society: patrilineality and patrilocality

The Chinese society is very influenced by Confucianism, where maintaining the lineage is fundamental. China is a patrilineal society, where the main productive assets are passed through the male line, whereas girls receive some movable goods through inheritance. Patrineality is that strong that if a man does not have any sons, he may adopt one or take another wife to reach his objective.

The Chinese society is also characterized by the principle of patrilocality, according to which the couple lives in the man’s village. In traditional China, when a woman marries a man, she moves to his clan. In this society, women are seen as a way to continue the lineage, but it is the man who constitutes the social order. As a result, it is preferable for families to have sons instead of daughter, as they will be sure that the lineage will be maintained and the property will stay in the family.

Also, another consequence of patrilocality is that families prefer having sons because they will be able to provide them with old age support. Considering that the new couple moves in with the man’s family, his parents will be sure to have support, whereas the woman’s parents will remain without support from their daughters, in the hypothesis where they only have daughters.

Ancestor worship

Within the Chinese society, ancestor worship is fundamental. People have certain beliefs relating to afterlife. Between other ideas, it is necessary to have sons to perpetuate the family’s tradition and worship their ancestors. Girls cannot do so, and as a result, not having any son is considered as a “handicap” for a family both during and after life.

Economic factors

Traditionally, the main argument for son preference in China has been the strength of men comparing to women, particularly to work in the field and bring an income to the family.

Dangers of son preference and missing women

One of the main (and most visible) consequence of son preference is that some men are unable to marry and have a family. We can also observe an increase in trafficking of women and in the number of sex workers.

What was done to reduce son preference

Several laws were voted during the last two decades in order to prevent son preference and sex-selective methods.

• 1991-1992: two laws forbidding drowning and abandonment of young girls, neglect and discriminations of sterile women or women only having daughters.

• 1994: law forbidding the determination of the foetus’ gender.

• 2002: law forbidding sonograms determining the fœtus’ gender or abortion based on gender.

• 2001: campaign to promote girls “More consideration for girls”

Nevertheless, a World Bank report underlines that the most effective way to change things is to “alter the fundamentals of family system”. Favoring gender equality is also crucial, and progress has been made for the past years. Between others, the market reform allowed girls to earn wages and therefore provide their family with financial support before they are married.

References

See also

• China
• Gendercide in China
• Pagelink infos=”One child policy”]
• Missing Women
• Son Preference
• Sex ratio
• Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base
• Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base Variables: Family Code

See also

• Son preference in China
• Missing Women
• Gendercide in China

External Links

• www.oecd.org/dev/gender/sigi

Table of Contents

• 1 About
• 2 Beijing Platform
• 3 Other
• 4 Sources
• 5 See also
• 6 External links
• 7 Further reading

About

In 1994 the Cairo Programme of Action was adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development. This reproductive health document was the first to be of international policy nature. It states:

Reproductive rights embrace certain Universal Declaration of Human Rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other relevant United Nations consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence as expressed in human rights documents. In the exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community.

Beijing Platform

The Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, supported the Cairo Programme but also offered a broader context of reproductive rights:

The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences

Other

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) can be understood as the right for all, whether young or old, women, men or Transgender , straight, gay, Lesbian or bisexual, HIV/AIDS/AIDS positive or negative, to make choices regarding their own sexuality and reproduction, providing these respect the rights of others to bodily integrity. This definition also includes the right to access information and services needed to support these choices and optimise health.

The highest attainable standard of sexual health, including access to sexual and reproductive health care services. Other rights listed under sexual rights include, rights to sexuality education and bodily integrity, and the right to “pursue a satisfying, safe and pleasurable sexual life”.

Attaining the goals of sustainable, equitable development requires that individuals are able to exercise control over their sexual and reproductive lives. This includes the rights to:

• Reproductive health as a component of overall health, throughout the life cycle, for both men and women
• Reproductive decision-making, including voluntary choice in marriage, family formation and determination of the number, timing and spacing of one’s children and the right to have access to the information and means needed to exercise voluntary choice
• Equality and equity for men and women, to enable individuals to make free and informed choices in all spheres of life, free from discrimination based on gender
• Sexual and reproductive security, including freedom from sexual violence and coercion, and the right to privacy.

References

•  Swedish Association for Sexuality Education
•  ELDIS
•  The Beijing Declaration
•  UNFPA
• http://www.iisd.ca/Cairo/program/p07002.html
• Cook, Rebecca J.; Mahmoud F. Fathalla (September 1996). “Advancing Reproductive Rights Beyond Cairo and Beijing”. International Family Planning Perspectives (International Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 22, No. 3) 22 (3): 115–121. doi:10.2307/2950752

See also

• Reproductive Category:Health
• Sexual Category:Health
• Abortion
• Women's rights
• Centre for Reproductive Rights

External links

• Sexual and Reproductive Rights: Amnesty International
• Fulfilling Reproductive Rights for Women Affected by HIV: A Tool for Monitoring the Achievement of MDGs

Further reading

• UN Commission on Population and Development Resolution 2002/1
• Supporting the Constellation of Reproductive Rights: UNFPA
• Reproductive Freedom: ACLU
• Reproductive Rights: Feminist Majority Foundation
• Gender Responsive Budgeting and Women’s Reproductive Rights- A Resource Pack: UNIFEM
• Gender, Sexuality, Sexual Reproductive Rights and Health: PSBT
  

Definition

The one-child policy (simplified Chinese: 计划生育政策; pinyin: jìhuà shēngyù zhèngcè; literally “policy of birth planning”) is the population control policy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Initiated in 1979, this policy aimed at alleviating social, economic, and environmental problems in China.It urged that married urban couples can have one child, with the exemptions for Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau,Tibet and rural couples, ethnic minorities, and parents without any siblings themselves. According to a survey of the Pew Research Center, over 76% of the Chinese population supports the policy. However, it is still quite controversial inside and outside China, considering the fact that it might cause negative economic and social effects, and other side effects such as gender imbalance.

Gender imbalance

Male/Female ratio

Like many other Asian countries, China has a long tradition of son preference. In rural areas, a son is generally preferred since he is more helpful in farm work and is seen as continuing the family line. The sex ratio at birth in China was 108:100 in 1981, and it had risen to 111:100 in 1990. In 2000, it reached 117:100. In 2000, male/female sex ratio from the 2nd to 5th child ranged from 148 : 100 to 160 : 100. According to William Saletan , the high figures for second birth could reach to 190 in Anhui and 192 in Jiangsu. For third births, the sex ratio rose to over 200 in four provinces. The State Population and Family Planning Commission warned that gender imbalances could lead to social instability. China’s men are facing a shortage of wives, with a predicted 30 million more men of marriageable age than women by 2020,and what is worse,in rural areas – where the imbalance is at its greatest – will be further affected because women are “marrying out” into cities.

Sex-selective abortion

Why would the boy-girl ratio rise rapidly with birth order? The exemptions for rural couples give them a second chance or sometimes a third chance to have a boy if the first birth is a girl. Then if the next fetus is a girl, she is more likely to be aborted in order to try again for a son.

Adoption

According to Sten Johansson and Ola Nygren (1991) adoptions accounted for half of the so-called “missing girls” in the 1980s in China. Through the 1980s, as the one-child policy came into force, parents who desired a son but bore a daughter in some cases failed to report or delayed the reporting of the birth of the girl to the authorities. But rather than neglecting or abandoning unwanted girls, the parents may have offered them up for formal or informal adoption. A majority of children who went through formal adoption in China in the later 1980s were girls, and the proportion who were girls increased over time (Johansson and Nygren 1991)

Fertility medicines

In some areas, the couples turn to fertility medicines to have multiple births so as to avoid legal penalties. According to the 2006 China daily report, the number of multiple births per year in China has doubled by 2006.

References

• Associated Press (14 February 2006). “China: Drug bid to beat child ban”. China Daily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/14/content_520025.htm
• Chen Wei(2005).”Sex Ratios at Birth in China” http://www.cicred.org/Eng/Seminars/Details/Seminars/FDA/papers/18_ChenWei.pdf
• Hazel Wong, Wang Yunxian, Zhao Qun and Feng Yuan, Women and poverty in China, Third World Resurgence No. 177, May 2005
• Sten Johansson and Ola Nygren. 1991. “The Missing Girls of China: A New Demographic Account”, Population and Development Review 17 (March): 35-51.
• William Saletan , Sex ReversalChild quotas, abortion, and China’s missing girls http://www.slate.com/id/2216236/fr/nl/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy
• The Chinese Celebrate Their Roaring Economy, As They Struggle With Its Costs”. 2008-07-22. http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=261