Female Labour Force Participation and the Reduction in Son Preference in China

ABSTRACT

The preference for sons transcends many cultures, making it an issue with local and global dimensions. This article explores if and how married women’s preferences in relation to their children are influenced by a shift in their economic status. Our results show that female employment had a significant effect on son preference. Specifically, women’s participation in the labour market reduces son preference by 15.7 per cent, and a 10 per cent increase in wages leads to a further 0.05 per cent reduction in the preference for having sons rather than daughters. The results also support the view that economic factors are sufficient to change deeply entrenched norms regarding gender preferences. We attribute the positive effect of labour participation on female bargaining power to shifts in the allocation of intrahousehold resources. The article conducts a cross-regional test to illustrate that the developmental gap between rural and urban communities partly explains China’s increasing sex imbalance. It thereby shows why the phenomenon of ‘missing women’ has played out so differently worldwide.

摘要

男孩偏好在不同的文化场域中均有存在, 使其成为一个既具有区域性, 又具有国际性的重要问题。本文研究了已婚女性经济地位如何影响其男孩偏好。结果表明, 女性劳动市场参与对男孩偏好存在缓解效应, 女性劳动工资每上升10%, 其男孩偏好程度将下降0.05%, 这意味着经济因素足以撼动根深蒂固的性别偏好制度。从影响机制看, 女性劳动市场参与对其议价能力的提升效应来源于家庭内部资源分配的变化。进一步城乡对比分析发现, 相较于城市样本, 女性劳动市场参与对农村女性男孩偏好的缓解效应更强。

KEYWORDS:

• Economic status
• labour participation
• female bargaining power
• son preference
• gender
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editor, David Hundt, and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. The concept of ‘missing women’ (Sen, 1990; 1992) refers to terrible gender discrimination against women in substantial parts of Asia and North Africa.

^2. The approximate number of missing women is calculated using sex ratios obtained from the China population census in 2010 and those reported in Western Europe from WDI as a benchmark.

^3. Sex ratio at birth refers to male births per female birth. China’s sex ratio at birth in 2018 is obtained from World Bank Open Data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Colleges Key Research Project of Guangdong under Grant No. 2019WZDXM008; the National Social Science Fund of China under Grant No. 19ZDA115; and the Innovation Team Project of Guangdong under Grant No. 2017WCXTD001.