Are daughters preferred?
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A look at changes worldwide with regard to the how moms feel about the genders of their children.
Should it be a girl or a boy? In some Asian and African countries the happiness of young parents depends on their newborn child being of the "proper" sex. In European and in North-American countries with different welfare regimes, there is no clear pattern of sex-preferences.
In a 2000 study, Dr Hilke Brockmann from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, has examined how sex-preferences in Germany have changed over time and in response to changes in welfare regimes.
She concludes that the process of modernization does not neutralize sex-preferences. In Germany, there could be a trend towards a one-daughter family. Dr Brockmann reported her findings in the European Sociological Review.
"A daughter is no more than spill water," goes an old Chinese saying. In Asian and African countries, there is a strong boy-preference because sons are the breadwinners and are able to support their parents financially. Therefore many young women get pregnant again and again until they give birth to a boy. The desire for a son is the father of many daughters. Governmental regulations in South Korea and China to decrease the birth rate have not changed the son-preference, but they have increased the selective abortion of girls.
In developed European and North American countries, where the fertility rate has fallen well below replacement level, studies do not reveal any clear pattern of sex-preferences. Some studies in the US provide evidence of a girl-preference, while others suggest the contrary conclusion. Research from Norway and Sweden demonstrates that the probability of having a third child is significantly higher if the first two children are of the same sex.
"Because of the different results, some scientists are inclined to assuming that in modern countries sex-preferences will disappear", says Dr Brockmann. But she was not convinced of this argument and so she initiated her own study.
The main purpose of her research was to show how the attitudes of German mothers concerning the sex of their children changed during the 20th century. She took into account the different welfare regimes over the last hundred years.
Modern welfare states take over some of the traditional tasks of sons -- the financial insurance against risks, such as sickness, unemployment and old age, for example. The likelihood of a girl-preference will increase as the welfare state provides more services like kindergardens, hospitals and special homes for the elderly. This implies a higher participation of women in the labor market. On the other hand, though, the welfare state does not provide for household work, which in most families is still performed traditionally by women.
In her study, Dr Brockmann has analysed representative data on 5,854 women born between 1892 and 1978. She could show that in the first part of the 20th century most women preferred sons. If the first child was a boy, the time lapse to the second birth was two years longer than if it was a girl.
After World War II, the gender preference changed. In West Germany, boys and girls were welcomed equally. In contrast, East German women born after 1950 reveal a significant girl-preference. More than 65 percent of the women who had a boy first had a second baby. But only 58 percent of women who had a girl went on to have another child. The median waiting time was five years after a boy and six years after a girl.
One explanation could be the socio-economic status of women in East Germany. The socialist regime promoted a high level of female participation in the labor market. As a consequence, daughters became not only caregivers but also a breadwinners.
"We should not believe that modern societies neutralize sex-preferences," Dr Brockmann explains. It depends on the development of the welfare regime. She hypothesizes that the preference for girls will increase as more women enter the labor market and people become older and older.
