The worth of a female child

Looking at the sex ratio globally, there are three countries who have many more males than females:  China, India and Armenia.  This is more of an issue in rural areas and so the figures might be even higher.  In both China and India  it is estimated that there are 37 million more men than women.

In these countries the words “its a girl’ are met with disappointment.  There are several reasons why a female child is not as valued as a male child.  Boys generate income.  Girls generate a dowry and are of lower social status.  In India and China, when a woman marries she becomes part of the husbands family and so to ensure financial security and care in old age, families want to have a male.

In China the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) created laws for equal rights for men and women but female infanticide has increased dramatically since the CCP’s family planning policy of one child per couple took effect in 1989.   Couples are given medical, financial, and educational benefits for compliance which will be a benefit for the majority of the population.  Wealthy couples can pay the fines if they have more than one child so it is less of an issue (on my last trip to China, everyone at dinner had more than one child).   Nationally in China since the 1990s, the sex ratio has been in favour of boys.  In Jiangxi, for ages 1-4, there are 143 boys for every 100 girls. We reported that China has lifted the one child per family ruling as the population has reduced too much.

In India, women who do not produce sons may be ridiculed, abused or even killed.  The girls that do live on may experience neglect and abuse.

Female infanticide is cited as the main way of getting rid of an unwanted female child in India and China and it is thought that millions of girls in both countries have been killed.  We have reported on India’s missing girls.  In India, apparently it is the women who are forced to commit female infanticide.  

An ultrasound scan can be used to sex the fetus at around 15-16 weeks, and female pregnancies can be aborted.  Even though this practice has been banned in India and China, it still happens.  Or the child may be killed at delivery or soon after.  There are many ways that the girls are killed which may include being starved or poisoned.  In China female children may be put in orphanages dubbed ‘Dying Rooms’ which are almost entirely filled with girls and where the children experience major neglect.  1 in 5 die.

But women are needed to produce a family.  One mans sperm can fertilise many women, but one woman takes 9 months to have a child.  You would think that a lack of females would increase a woman’s status in these societies but unfortunately it has gone the other way.  Women are being kidnapped, forced into marriages and slave traded. This outcome was summed up in the book  The First Century after Beatrice.  The author, Amin Maalouf, predicted that it would cause a global catastrophe, especially in the developing world.

Globally we need to educate societies to respect and increase the value of women.  We need to implement social strategies to increase the social standing of women.  We have a long way to go.

Read More:

http://www.globalwomenconnected.com/pregnancy/value-of-female-children/

http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/femaleinfanticide.html

http://www.globalwomenconnected.com/2016/01/indias-missing-girls/

http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/gendercide#_ftn2

Image credit:  thenovice4.wordpress.com