The Daughter Deficit

Chandler Thomas

SOC 202

09/01/2009

6:35pm

Family Topic

Some situations for families with daughters is dire in the developing world today. In some cultures, there is still a fervent preference for boys. Families who keep having girls become desperate for a boy. Midwives are paid less when they deliver a girl, and some of these girls end up dying from neglect in the early years of their life if they are not initially aborted or killed. In India & China, development is bringing this issue to a rise. Millions are denied the healthcare & education that their brothers receive. When the family belongs to a higher caste, it drastically raises the chances of their daughter being discriminated against. South Korea, Taiwan, & Singapore are also showing signs of being biased against their daughters. The highest percentages of so-called missing girls are found in middle-income, high-education nations. They've also found that when women's power is raised, families are using it against them still in favor of their boys. Back in the 80's, a student named Monica Das Gupta did some research around India & came back with some interesting findings that are being looked at in relation to this topic today. She found that a first-born daughter did not have nearly as much biased pressure placed upon her by her family as additional daughters did. She concluded that with a first-born the family was much more comfortable with the hope of still having a boy. However, additional daughters caught the biased treatment when the family still didn't have a boy. Today, this rigid patriarchal culture is still making having a son a social & financial necessity. It goes to show that development does not improve all aspects of a society at the same rate, some will get worse before they get better. Birth normality rates between families having boys & their reactions to having girls will eventually equal out, but for now they're the same if not worse on some accounts. Time will gradually show change on this topic as development continues in these cultures.

I was actually really surprised when I read this. It really relates more to women, but from the families reaction standpoint, I was able to relate it to a family topic as well. It makes sense after you read it that its actually worse now with development, but researchers are convinced that it will slowly level out & get better. At least now the families are offered medical technology to help them make decisions, hence they can determine the sex of their babies very early on now without making terminal drastic decisions at birth time. It will be very interesting to see how this issue progresses with development & the changes that it will ensue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23FOB-idealab-t.html?pagewanted=2&sq=daughter%20deficit&st=cse&scp=1