Why are baby boys more preferable?

I saw this piece in yesterday’s New York Times. Its on America’s new Chinese immigrants’ preference for boys in their families:

“In those families, if the first child was a girl, it was more likely that a second child would be a boy, according to recent studies of census data. If the first two children were girls, it was even more likely that a third child would be male.

Demographers say the statistical deviation among Asian-American families is significant, and they believe it reflects not only a preference for male children, but a growing tendency for these families to embrace sex-selection techniques, like in vitro fertilization and sperm sorting, or abortion.”

The cause?

“Joyce Moy, executive director of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of the City University of New York, said that family values prevalent in China, including the tradition of elder parents depending on their sons for support, have seeped into American culture even among younger immigrants, and even when some of the historic underlying reasons for the preference are less relevant here than in China, Korea and India.

“Inheritance in the old country is carried through the male line,” she said. “Families depend on the male child for support.””

Hmmm. Old habits die hard. Read my previous post on why it sucks to be a male in Shanghai. I guess only in America can you make yourselves feel truly at home. And what is home if you don’t import all your problems too.

Now if you put this insistence on having baby boys together with the prospect that

a) males will eventually outnumber females (poorer males, you can forget about getting a bride)

b)  girls are consistently outperforming guys in college and if you’re a guy, you may soon have to kiss male dominance in the corporate jungle goodbye

how long do you think it’ll be before that preference for baby boys flips to a preference for baby girls. I mean if you were a parent, which would you rather have: a son that’s struggling to find a bride because there’s not enough gals out there and he’s not rich enuf to attract one? Or a smart up-and-coming corporate daughter or one married to a rich son in law.  😀

Maybe there’s a reason after all why you only find queen bees in a hive, never a king bee.

(Btw, this one-child policy (计划生育政策) only started in China in 1979. Its first generation has come of age and we’re already seeing the problems in Shanghai. Imagine what it’ll be like 50-60 years from now. I think any community that’s fixated on babies of a single gender, not just China, will face the same fate.)