10 Countries That Preferred Male Child to female Child

List Of Countries That Preferred Male Child to female Child

In many cultures, male offspring are desired in order to inherit property, carry on the family name and to provide support for parents in old age.

There is a preference of parents to have a son over a daughter in many countries. This can be observed through sex ratios of children in various countries. Although biologically the sex ratio of children is around 95 girls to every 100 boys, this number generally evens out due to the higher infant mortality rate of boy infants. Scholars argue that the expected birth sex ratio in a normal population is in the range of 103 to 107 males to females at birth

Below are the countries that preferre male Child to a female Child

1. India

In a country like India, generally parents do not want a girl child and got to the extent of killing them in womb or after birth. 

Parents prefer to have a kid that is less problematic as it grows, gives them better returns on the investment of money and time and overall brings up joy. On these parameters female children perform poorly in country like India for the following reason.

1. Female child is a financial burden

When a girl gets married the family of girl has to pay dowry to the guy's family. This is the single largest financial blow that the girl's family gets. This money is generally around 10-20% of the total income of the girl's family. 

So the moment a girl is born, you have to assume that you have lost 10% of your total income. 

Even after the girl is married there are many occasions when her parents are expected to shell out a lot of cash.

2. Females are non productive members of the family

Literacy levels in India is very low and females dont have much opportunities to make money hence they bring less money in the family hence they add negative value to the family's economic status.

3. Protecting a girl is difficult

Rape and Sexual abuse are very common in India. People have this concept of sexual purity which are pretty strict. Just because a girl happened to kiss someone might mean no on will marry her ever. So the family needs to put a lot of efforts in protecting a girl child.

2. China

In China there is no real retirement plan other than having children that can feed you and care for you when you're old. And parents can sue their male children to care for them, they even can sue their male children to visit them regularly. Meanwhile female children can sue their parents to care for them (until they marry into another family). So if you have a female child and she later refuses to marry you will have to pay for her stuff even when you're too old to work anymore and because of the one child policy that was in effect until recently having a girl meant you couldn't have a boy that would later support you. Some people claim that parents didn't want girls because women wouldn't earn as much money. But even if women did earn a lot of money they were under no obligation to support their parents.

3. Afghanistan

In some Muslim countries like Afghanistan there is a similar situation where women are entitled to get the basic necessities of life from their husband or male relatives. Even if the woman is a millionaire.

4. Indonesia

5. Nepal 

In the above Two listed countries, ( Indonesia, Nepal )The preference for sons over daughters can be connected to a number of reasons. In these countries, it is argued that son preference is linked to factors including economics, religion, and culture. Having a son ensures that families are more economically secure by not having to provide dowry payments, but rather being on the receiving end of this practice. In China, the one child policy has contributed to the sex imbalance, while the dowry system in India is responsible for a strong son preference.

Furthermore, in countries where there are discriminatory practices regarding women inheriting, owning, or controlling land by law, having a son ensures that the family will not have to worry about the legal aftermath if something were to happen to them.

It can also be argued that parents in these countries are aware of the potential hardship their daughter would have to endure in her lifetime, and therefore prefer to have a son in order not to see their daughter endure such difficulties. Many times this son preference results in female foeticide and pre-natal sex

6. United State

According to a 2011 Gallup poll, American parents favor boys by a 40% to 28% margin. The results were similar to a survey in 1941, when Americans preferred a boy to a girl by a 38% to 24% margin. The overall preference was driven by men, of whom 49% preferred a son compared to 22% who preferred a daughter. Men's preference for sons was most pronounced among men aged 18 to 29. Women, on the other hand, showed no preference for either sex, with 33% stating that they preferred a girl and 31% responding that they favored a boy. A 2009 study at the University of Ulster found that having sisters, as compared to brothers, can enhance the quality of an adult's life.

7. England

In England the parents of a female daughter have to pay a dowry to the man who she was marrying. So imagine that your lower class daughter has found someone to marry. Or more like, you have found someone for her to marry. She has no choice. However before she can marry someone, her parents must pay the to-be husband a few. Sometimes it can be astronomical and can leave a family bankrupt. It was very likely for the lower classes to spend all their lives trying to successfully marry off a daughter.

So a son was good because the parents wouldn't need to pay a dowry. A daughter would require more expenses.

8. Africa

In Africa people preferred to have a male child because of the following reasons

A. Care taking: After marriage daughter will be sent to her husband's home. Parents think that their son will take care of them during old age.

Heir successor for the property.

During search for marriage proposals, girls are expected to be good in all the things like beauty, character, property and money. But boys are expected only salary and property and sometimes looks.

If a boy learns bad habits, girls often compromise. For a girl drinking and smoking leave it, suppose if she is bold and talks too much, she will be rejected. Always girls jataka and kundli used to be blamed for the bad things that occur in the family.

9. Japan

Parents in Japan preferred a male Child to a female Child, because their views of females and female roles can be really conservative and sexist for such a modernized country, and there are problems enforcing rape there (needs “proof”, and moreover, girls raised there are raised to never talk about anything sexual or question their society in relation to gender equality).

Even if your daughter has a very westernized and pro-feminist family life in Japan, their media is filled with more strictly idealized and sexualised women than in USA. She must be thin and not America’s standard of “average” which they consider chubby.

10. South Korea

That may also apply to South Korea,  which is far more strict with body image and facial beauty (not sure about actual feminism, but I think they are strict with both genders unlike Japan), but I have not been there myself and only judge by their media and what other people say.

Do your country prefer male child to female Child? Comment below!