Daughters being welcomed more in Korea

For years now, a growing demographic problem in Asia has resulted from a cultural preference for sons over daughters. Now, however, there are signs that South Korea may finally be bucking this trend, which has caught the attention of other Asian nations looking to rebalance the ratio of women to men in their societies. The Herald Tribune has the story:

In South Korea, once one of Asia’s most rigidly patriarchal societies, a centuries-old preference for baby boys over baby girls is fast receding. Demographers have welcomed the shift, which they say holds promise for other Asian countries, like China, India and Vietnam. There a continuing preference for boys, coupled with access to ultrasound technology, has led to the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses, resulting in a large imbalance between boys and girls.

“China and India are closely studying South Korea as a trendsetter in Asia,” said Chung Woo Jin, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. “They are curious whether the same social and economic changes can occur in their countries as fast as they did in South Korea’s relatively small and densely populated society.” …

For years in Asia, the sex ratio at birth has been tilting toward boys in a way demographers had never seen before. In China in 2005, the ratio was 120 boys for every 100 girls, according to the UN Population Fund. India logged about 108 boys to 100 girls in 2001, when the last census was taken. Vietnam, with a ratio of 110 boys to 100 girls last year, was further tipping the regional imbalance.

The Population Fund warned in an October report that tinkering with nature’s probabilities would lead to increased sexual violence and that the trafficking of women would grow because a growing number of men would not be able find wives or would resort to importing women from poorer regions…

In South Korea, sons historically received the inheritance, carried on the family lineage and took care of their parents in old age – and even in the afterlife, it was believed, as they oversaw ceremonies of ancestor worship. Newlywed couples went to live with the husband’s family.

“In the old days, when there was no adequate social safety net, Korean parents regarded having a son as kind of making an investment for old age security,” Chung said…

With women’s economic influence rising and the old male-oriented Confucian precepts crumbling, parents now find fewer reasons to prefer sons over daughters.

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