Gendercide: The World Wide War on Baby Girls

In ten years, China will have more boys than girls. Skewed sex ratios, a result of infanticide and sex-selective abortions, have become a huge problem not only in China, but also in India, South Korea, Singapore, and even some ex-Soviet states. Reasons for preference for boys include a desire to avoid the cost of dowries to be paid on the daughter’s wedding, a woman’s adoption into her husband’s family after marriage, and the expectation that male children will care for aged parents. Historically, people have blamed the gender imbalances produced by these attitudes on China’s one child policy, on poverty, or on lack of education. Recent studies show, however, that the disparity between gender numbers in China is in fact most common in areas with exceptions to the one-child rule and among more educated and more affluent families. This seems to be because of the greater availability in these areas of medical technologies like ultrasound screening through which prenatal sex can be determined. The results of this trend bodes trouble: many men will be left without wives in nations where social status depends on having a family. Also, large numbers of unsettled men statistically increase crime rates, which could in turn lead to more authoritarian government action. – YaleGlobal