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When I was a child, I remember being with
my father when he talked to his friend. It was only the three of us and I found myself listening to
them chatting. The conversation turned to family issues.
My father’s
friend asked how many children my father had. My father had three
children. “Are they girls or boys?” the man said. My father replied they
were all girls.
My father’s
friend was quick to say he had four children and that meant he was
luckier than my father as all of them were boys. My father said the sex
of the children did not dictate one’s luck, as boys and girls were the
same.
I was only a
little girl then, but I could grasp the attitude that lay behind my
father’s friend’s statement: A girl was worth less than a boy.
Today 1.5
million girls go missing at birth every year as a result of prenatal sex
selection (Kate Gilles and Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs, When technology and
tradition collide: From gender bias to sex selection, 2012).
The writers
note that based on the sex ratio at birth — the balance of male to female
births is generally expressed as the number of male babies born for every
100 female babies born — under normal circumstances, about 102-107 boys
are born for every 100 girls. Nonetheless, in some countries more boys
and fewer girls are born, which goes against the normal ratio.
Gilles and
Feldman-Jacobs indicate that the reason behind the imbalanced sex ratio
at birth is a combination of three factors: preferences for sons,
decreasing family sizes and the rapid spread of pre-natal sex
determination technology.
The
preferences for sons is nothing new. In a patriarchal culture, a son is
preferred for economic, social and religious reasons.
A friend of
mine said that a married daughter should be more dutiful to her husband
than to her parents, while a son should be dutiful to his parents
regardless of his marital status. Thus, having a son is an “investment”
for old age, socially and economically.
Ironically,
in some countries, decreasing family sizes due to family planning
programs combined with a strong preferences for sons, lead many families
to not just “prefer” a son over a daughter but to view at least one son
as a “must have” in a family, at all costs.
The
development of medical technologies such as ultrasound machines is mainly
aimed at improving prenatal care for women, but is often misused as a
tool to enable parents to identify the sex of their unborn child.
Problems occur when parents discover the sex does not meet their
expectations.
Some of them
decide to abort the pregnancy as a result. Others continue the pregnancy
only to abandon, discriminate and “hide” their child, in particular if
it’s a girl, not registering her so that they still have a chance to have
a boy.
This
particularly applies in some countries that apply strict policies on
limiting the number of children in families and on strong son
preferences.
Sadly, the
words “it’s a girl” are no longer followed with gasps of joy. Instead,
they can prove deadly to the baby, even before she enters the world.
Indonesia
also applies a policy on limiting children’s number in a family which is
part of an effort to control the population number. Its family planning
program promotes two children as an ideal family’s size.
While son
preference also occurs in Indonesia, sex ratio at birth is within the
normal range that is 105 male babies born for every 100 female babies (UN
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Population Prospects:
The 2010, Vol. II: Demographic Profiles). This could partially relate to
Indonesia’s family planning program’s motto “two children is enough,
girls or boys are the same”.
In a book
titled Sex Imbalances at Birth: Trends, Consequences, and Policy
Implications (2012), Christophe Guilmoto says the top three countries
with imbalanced sex ratios at birth are mainland China, with 118.1 boys
born for every 100 girls (2009); Azerbaijan, with 117.6 (2009); and
Armenia, with 115.8 (2008).
An imbalanced
sex ratio at birth leads to wider social, economic and political
problems. Guilmoto notes the problem of a “marriage squeeze” in some
countries, where men outnumber women of marriageable age.
For men, this
problem may cause unrest, especially among those from disadvantaged
backgrounds who are unable to find partners. For women, it is even worse.
In the economy, scarcity of certain goods raise price.
In “marriage
squeeze” scenarios, the problem of “bride scarcity” does not raise
women’s status, but instead stimulates female trafficking and forced
marriage.
Nature has
its own mechanism for maintaining a balanced sex ratio and ensuring the
sustainability of humans. Technology should be developed in line with
nature and to improve the quality of life of all men and women.
Culture
relates to how technology is adopted and whether it will bring advantages
or disadvantages for humans.
It is clear
that technological development, if not accompanied by changing mindsets
on gender equality, does not give women maximum benefits, but could even
be harmful for them. ●
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