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Why Are There More Boys Than Girls?

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The Demographic Masculinization of China

Part of the book series: INED Population Studies ((INPS,volume 1))

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Abstract

As explained in the previous chapter, in the absence of differential migration, the proportions of the two sexes in a given population are determined by the ratio of boys to girls at birth and by male and female mortality at each age in life. In China, the masculinization of the population since the 1980s can be attributed to an increase in the sex ratio at birth, and to a particularly high excess female mortality in early childhood.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Great Chinese Famine was a consequence of the Great Leap Forward, a mass mobilization of the population to develop industrial production launched in 1958. Requisitioned for major infrastructure construction projects (jiben jianshe) and industrial production (brickworks, steel furnaces), peasants neglected the autumn harvest. This led to 3 years (1959–1961) of severe food shortages and disrupted agricultural production. The Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine it caused were responsible for 15–30 million deaths and a total population deficit of more than 50 million (Godement 1990).

  2. 2.

    For more information on family planning policies in China, see for example Blayo (1997), Scharping (2003) and Attané (2005).

  3. 3.

    The 1990, 2000 and 2010 censuses give two different series for the sex ratio at birth in the years under consideration, depending on the birth series on which the calculation is based. The first series are based on the short-form questionnaires, while the second ones, from which data by birth order are extracted, are based on the long-form questionnaires (filled out by 10 % of households).

  4. 4.

    This correlation is based on annual data for 1980–1999 with the sex ratio at birth as the x-coordinate and the mean number of children per woman as the y-coordinate.

  5. 5.

    For relevant definitions, see Attané (2002a, pp. 356–357).

  6. 6.

    See footnote 5 in chapter 1.

  7. 7.

    China’s family planning policy to remain unchanged. China Daily, 20 Dec 2010. Available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-12/20/content_11729781.htm. Accessed 11 Sept 2012

  8. 8.

    China welcomes 1.3 billionth citizen. People’s Daily Online (Renmin wang). Available at http://english.people.com.cn/200501/06/eng20050106_169765.html. Accessed 11 Sept 2012

  9. 9.

    Qin Jize (2004) China still faces population problems. China Daily. Available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/08/content_372497.htm. Accessed 11 Sept 2012

  10. 10.

    No relaxation of Chinese‘ one couple, one child’ policy: Official. op. cit.

  11. 11.

    This excess female mortality may be slightly overestimated. In villages in Henan Province, for example, some couples gave their daughter to a wet nurse, registered the child as having died, underwent the sterilization operation required by the family planning authorities and then recovered the child. This type of behavior cannot alone account for the large mortality differences between girls and boys, however (Xu and Guo 1991).

  12. 12.

    Except, in some cases, at reproductive ages. We will come back to this.

  13. 13.

    Although the adjustments made by Xu et al. (1994) and Zhai (1993), give slightly different figures for infant mortality from the adjustments made by the CPIRC (1995), they nevertheless point up female excess mortality on a similar scale.

  14. 14.

    It is noteworthy however that the official unadjusted figures from 2010 census clearly underestimate recent trends in infant mortality. Indeed, infant mortality rates from the decennial population censuses are known to be unrealistically low. This implies that the ratio 1.050 could be inaccurate and underestimate the gender gap.

  15. 15.

    In 1951, the Chinese government issued the Labour Insurance Regulations of the People’s Republic of China (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo laodong baoxian tiaoli) (see Hou 1995).

  16. 16.

    One campaign sought to eradicate the “four pests” (si hai): flies, mosquitoes, rats and grain-eating sparrows (Hsiao and Liu 2002).

  17. 17.

    Since the mid-1990s, efforts have been made to implement new insurance systems in cities, where medical costs are split between employees (geren zhanghu) and employers (gongji zhanghu).

  18. 18.

    World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/entity/countryfocus/resources/ccsbrief_china_chn_06_fr.pdf. Accessed 3 Jan 2012

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    Isabelle Attané

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Attané, I. (2013). Why Are There More Boys Than Girls?. In: The Demographic Masculinization of China. INED Population Studies, vol 1. Springer, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00236-1_2

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