Sex Imbalances at Birth – Trends, Policy Implications +
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: July 8, 2013
WUNRN
SEX IMBALANCES AT BIRTH – CURRENT
TRENDS, CONSEQUENCES & POLICY IMPLICATIONS
Direct Link to Full 88-Page 2012
Report:
Sex Imbalances at Birth
Current trends, consequences and policy implications
Author: Christophe
Z. Guilmoto
No. of pages: 88
Publication date: 2012
Publisher: UNFPA
Asia and Pacific Regional Office
This report offers an updated review of the
various facets and the latest trends and differentials in sex selection in Asia.
It includes a set of recommendations to combat gender discrimination and
prenatal sex selection at the national and regional level.
Education, urbanization and economic development have
significantly improved opportunities for Asian women and girls over the last
two decades. Yet, this has coincided with a fall in the proportion of girls
among children in many countries. The decline, caused to a large extent by an
increase in prenatal sex selection in the past 20 years, is leading to an
alarming demographic masculinization. This intensifying gender imbalance will
have an adverse impact at many levels on men, women and families over the next
half century.
Prenatal sex selection leads to distorted levels of sex ratios at birth,
which today range between 110 and 120 male births per 100 female births in many
countries, as against the standard biological level of 104-106. Birth
masculinity as measured by the sex ratio at birth reaches levels above 120 or
130 in some specific regions, pointing to the intensity of son preference and
gender discrimination there. Meanwhile, postnatal sex selection – measured by
excess deaths among female infants and young girls – has not yet disappeared
from several countries, reflecting the continuing discrimination against and
neglect of female children.
Categories: Uncategorized
