User:Willa Wei/Sex-ratio imbalance in China

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For years, the census data in China has recorded a significant imbalance sex ratio toward the male population, meaning there are fewer women than men. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the missing women or missing girls of China.[1] '''China's official census report from 2000 shows that there were 117 boys for every 100 girls. The sex imbalance in some rural areas is even higher, at 130 boys to 100 girls, compared to a global average of 105 or 106 boys to 100 girls.'''  In 2021, the male-to-female ratio of China is recorded at 104.61 to 100.[2]

Female disadvantages in child survival throughout China reflect a long pattern of sex-based discrimination. Preferences for sons are common in China, owing to their ability to carry on family names, their wealth inheritance, and the idea that they are typically the ones to care for their parents once they are older. Limiting the ability for parents to have numerous children forces them to think of logical and long-term reasons to have a male or female child.[3] Chinese parents are known to favor large families and to prefer sons over daughters in efforts to create more directed family resources.[4] The result of the discrimination and male preference is a shortfall of women and an extremely unbalanced sex ratio in the population of China.[5] China's sex-ratio is the most skewed of any country in the world.[6] A study of United Nations birth data from 2000 to 2020 found that China and Azerbaijan had the most unbalanced sex ratios at birth during that period.

A number of studies in the 1990s and early 2000s concluded that China's sex-ratio was in fact closer to the norm, with population statistics skewed by age because of the number of rural people who did not register their baby girls (i.e., so that they could avoid China's family planning policies).[7]: 175–176  These studies observed that the sex-ratio began to even out around 7 years old, when children were registered for school.[7]: 176  Similarly, in December 2016, researchers at the University of Kansas reported that the missing women might be largely a result of administrative under-reporting and that delayed registration of females, instead of sex-selective abortion practices, which could account for as many as 10 to 15 million of the missing women since 1982.[8][9] Researchers found unreported females appear on government censuses decades later due to delayed registration, as families tried to avoid penalties when girls were born, which implies that the sex disparity was likely exaggerated significantly in previous analyses.[10][11][12]

Son preference in Chinese historical and traditional culture[edit]
Main article: Son preference in China

Son preference is traditional in Chinese Confucian patriarchal culture. Sons are preferred for a number of reasons: people think sons continue the family line, carry on the family name, have a higher wage-earning capacity, provide ancestral worship, and are generally recipients of inheritance, while girls are often considered an economic burden. After marriage, they typically become members of their husband's family and cease to have responsibility for aging or ill parents.

(I cleaned up this section) China’s traditional Confucian patriarchal culture has a strong preference for sons over daughters. '''This preference stems from several perceptions: sons are seen as the continuation of the family line, the offering of ancestor worship, and the main heir to the inheritance. In contrast, daughters are often seen as financial burdens. After marriage, daughters usually become part of the husband's family and are no longer responsible for the care of elderly or sick parents.'''

With socioeconomic improvements, modernization and the rise in women's status, son preference has declined in many urban areas in China but has persisted in some strictly traditional families and rural areas, reasserting itself under the one-child policy. With socio-economic development, modernization, and the advancement of women, son preference has declined in many urban areas of China. However, in some strictly traditional families and rural areas, son preference still exists and has resurfaced under the one-child policy. The greatest shortfalls of females appear in parts of rural China, where there are instances of 140 male births for every 100 females.

Throughout his leadership from 1949 to 1976, Mao Zedong went back and forth between believing large populations to be a source of power and recognizing the dangers of overpopulation. From 1949 to 1979, Mao Zedong went back and forth between seeing large populations as a source of strength and recognizing the dangers of overpopulation. Although Mao had considered economists' suggestions in the mid-1950s about the possible establishment of a nationwide family planning organization, he later returned to advocating rapid population growth during the Great Leap Forward.