A boy for you and a girl for me: Do men want sons and women want daughters?

People and Place

Volumn 15, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 1-8

  Gray, Edith ^a   Kippen, Rebecca ^a   Evans, Ann ^a  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FEMALE; MALE; PREFERENCE BEHAVIOR;

AUSTRALASIA; AUSTRALIA;

EID: 39649111099     PISSN: 10394788     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. R. Kippen, E. Gray and A. Evans, 'The impact on Australian fertility of wanting one of each', People and Place, vol. 13, no. 2, 2005, pp. 12-20
2. K. Hank, 'Parental gender preferences and reproductive behaviour: a review of the recent literature', Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 39, no. 5, 2007, pp. 759-767
3. ibid.
4. ibid., p. 761;
5. K. Hank and H-P. Kohler, 'Gender preferences for children in Europe: empirical results from 17 FFS countries', Demographic Research, vol. 12, no. 1, 2000
6. F. Arnold, 'Gender preferences for children', Demographic and Health Surveys Comparative Studies No. 23, Maryland: Macro International, 1997;
7. F. Arnold, M. Choe and T. Roy, 'Son preference, the family-building process and child mortality in India', Population Studies, vol. 52, no. 3, 1998, pp. 301-315;
8. A. Basu and M. Das Gupta, 'Family systems and the preferred sex of children', in N. Smelser and P. Baltes (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 8, pp. 5350-5357
9. C. Young, 'Family building differences between same sex and mixed sex families in Australia', Australian Journal of Statistics, vol. 19, no. 2, 1977, pp. 83-95
10. Hank and Kohler, 2000, op. cit.
11. M. Pollard and S. P. Morgan, 'Emerging parental gender indifference? Sex composition of children and the third birth', American Sociological Review, vol. 67, no. 4, 2002, pp. 600-613
12. D. S. Freedman, R. Freedman and P. K. Whelpton, 'Size of family and preference for children of each sex', The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 66, no. 2, 1960, pp. 141-146
13. Many of these studies find that fathers are involved in play-based activities, but also in discipline and educational activities. See W. Yeung, J. Sandberg, P. Davis-Kean and S. Hofferth, 'Children's time with fathers in intact families', Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 63, no. 1, 2001, pp. 136-154;
14. S. P. Morgan, D. Lye and G. Condran, 'Sons, daughters, and the risk of marital disruption', American Journal of Sociology, vol. 94, no. 1, 1988, pp. 110-129;
15. S. Lundberg, S. McLanahan and E. Rose, 'Child gender and father involvement in fragile families', Demography, vol. 44, no. 1, 2007, pp. 79-92. These studies find that fathers are more involved with sons in marital than non-marital relationships consistent with an argument about the importance of fathers for long-term development of sons.
16. Morgan et al., 1988, op. cit.;
17. A. Katzev, R. Warner and A. Acock, 'Girls or boys? Relationship of child gender to marital instability', Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 56, no. 1, 1994, pp. 89-100;
18. G. Dahl and E. Moretti, 'The demand for sons: evidence from divorce, fertility, and shotgun marriage', National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 10281
19. No relationship between sex of children and divorce was found in an Australian study by M. Bracher, G. Santow, S. P. Morgan and J. Trussell, 'Marriage dissolution in Australia: models and explanation', Population Studies, vol. 47, no. 3, 1993, pp. 403-425.
20. For an overview see J. Marleau and J-F. Saucier, 'Preference for a first-born boy in Western societies', Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 34, 2002, pp. 13-27;
21. D. Swetkis, F. Gilroy and R. Steinbacher, 'Firstborn preference and attitudes toward using sex selection technology', Journal of Genetic Psychology, vol. 163, no. 2, 2002, pp. 228-238.
22. Marleau and Saucier, 2002, op. cit.;
23. H. Statham, J. Green, C. Snowdon and M. France-Dawson, 'Choice of baby's sex', Lancet, vol. 341, 1993, pp. 564-565
24. E. Dahl, M. Beutel, B. Brosig and K-D. Hinsch, 'Preconception sex selection for non-medical reasons: a representative survey from Germany', Human Reproduction, vol. 18, no. 10, 2003, pp. 2231-2234
25. Statham et al., 1993, op. cit.
26. It is possible that there is a general reluctance to express a desire for a child of a particular sex resulting in the proportion of people that state that they 'do not care' about the sex of a child. However, it is impossible to disentangle whether people are actually refusing to state a desire for a child of a particular sex or whether they actually 'do not care'.
27. Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR), Hilda Survey Annual Report 2006, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2007
28. Marleau and Saucier, 2002, op. cit.
29. R. Kippen, A. Evans and E. Gray, 'Parental preference for sons and daughters in a Western industrial setting: evidence and implications', Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 39, pp. 583-597
30. Note that the percentage stating that sex of first child doesn't matter (60 per cent) is very similar to that found by Dahl et al., 2003, op. cit.
31. This is consistent with arguments made by IVF specialists, for example Kylie de Boer talking on Lateline in 2004 .