Sex-selective abortion is the abortion of a preborn child simply because the child’s sex was not what the parents wanted. Maria received a desperate call from Johnny. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. In fact, women may own family land too, but their ownership rights are weaker than men's. U.S. citizen petitioning for your son or daughter (married and/or 21 or over) You file Form I-130. This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Bring back the girls", Sign up to our free daily newsletter, The Economist today, Published since September 1843 to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”. iii Journal of Agricultural Extension Vol. The sense that nieces may be substitute daughters but nephews cannot be substitute sons shows how entrenched son-preference is. Hundreds of Nigerian schoolboys released, local governor says. Working Paper 6869. SEX-SELECTIVE abortions are used round the world to discriminate in favour of boys. In Nigeria, as in many other African countries, men have stronger ownership rights over land than women do. Correction: This article originally stated that in Nigeria only men may own family land. The issue of son preference is another pernicious violence against women for which the need to protect the girl-child is necessary and desirable in most societies of the world. Numerous factors affecting son preference were socio-economic set-up of the society, cultural beliefs, literacy, lesser opportunities for women jobs, cultural restrictions on women, family size, males\' dominance and their validity as earning heads of the households and intact/shared relations with the family as compared to daughters who would otherwise leave their families soon after getting married. Keywords: human rights, Igbo custom, Nigeria, son preference, violation, women 1. Academia.edu uses cookies to personalize content, tailor ads and improve the user experience. Some husbands, it turns out, take another wife if their first child is a girl (polygamy is legal in northern Nigeria and recognised by customary law elsewhere). Objective The study aimed to examine secular trends and determinants of changes in complementary feeding indicators in Nigeria. This phenomenon is evident in societies where male children are accorded special recognition and or higher But in Nigeria, as in most countries, female headship is associated with poverty. son preference, but women’s education and media exposure do make a difference. A statement issued today by OHCHR, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women and the WHO* reviews the evidence behind the causes, consequences and lessons learned regarding “son preference” or sex selection favouring boys in many parts of South, East and Central Asia, where ratios as high as 130 boys for every 100 girls have been observed. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser. It shows that son preference is prevalent and that its deleterious eects are re ected not in missing young or unborn girl children but … Audio message says Nigeria’s Boko Haram behind abduction of hundreds of schoolboys in northwestern state of Katsina. The preference for sons is so profound that it even affects a practice which may seem to have little to do with it: fostering. ... a mission to create more awareness about superstition in Africa with particular preference to Nigeria, and headed to … Son preference in Nigeria: The human rights implications. LAGOS, May 29 2002 (IPS) - The birth of male children is still the source of pride and honour in Nigeria, while that of female children is seen as failure. The immense value placed on male children around the world, especially among patriarchal cultures in developing countries like Nigeria, has resulted in unfavorable disposition towards the continuous birth and welfare of females. International comparisons of son preference are constructed, the first known to the author. men have stronger ownership rights over land than women do, Evidence mounts that Eritrean forces are in Ethiopia, Jail for a Saudi woman who said women should drive, After 34 years, Uganda’s president has no intention of retiring. All rights reserved. Son preference, fertility and family structure : evidence from reproductive behavior among Nigerian women (English) A structured questionnaire was used to ascertain child gender preferences in an urban and a rural area.Results: Significant son preference … The differences are small but consistent: having a daughter first changes child-bearing choices later. Using individual-level data for Nigeria, the paper shows that, compared to women with first-born sons, women with first-born daughters have (and desire) more children and are less … Yet despite all this, a recent study* finds that Nigeria also suffers from sexual bias from birth and that, while this does not skew the sex ratio, it manifests itself in other ways that harm individuals and society as a whole. Nigeria suffers from sexual bias – parent’s preference for a boy child has resulted in high fertility rates, increased polygamy, higher rates of suicide, high levels of depression, and other mental health conditions. PHOTO: Ogun State Command The following objectives were addressed: (1) examine societal factors that influence son preference … This gives everyone an economic need for sons, including women, who face a grim widowhood without one. Heading a household may sound like a good thing. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Son preference is a social problem and a form of gender discrimination that is based on the belief that daughters are inadequate and of lesser value than sons and this leads to harmful practices and unfair attitudes towards daughters. Nigeria’s sex ratio at birth is the natural one: 106 boys are born for every 100 girls (boys are more vulnerable to infant diseases, so this ratio ensures that equal numbers of the sexes reach puberty). In countries where culturally-rooted son preference is common, sex-selective abortion is used as a means to attain a couple’s desired number of sons and desired family composition. It also changes a woman’s married life. This perhaps explains the reason for the large number of children born by most families in a quest to have male children. Men also seem more willing to abandon or divorce wives who produce a daughter. In Nigeria traditional practices have ensured that men retain material, social and moral dominance over women that they are simply unwilling to voluntarily relinquish. World Bank. They are less likely to use contraceptives. Last, gender preferences seem to translate into di erential birth spacing mainly through contraception. This paper revisits the issue of son preference in Sub-Saharan Africa by examining patterns of fertility behavior and family structure in Nigeria. In North Africa, modern contraceptive users display a signi cantly stronger son preference than non-users. In fact, almost everything to do with having a daughter first is bad for women. Objectives: This study was designed to determine child-sex preference of women among an obstetric population in Nigeria, and to … Objective: To ascertain the child gender preferences in an urban and rural community in Enugu State.Materials and Methods: A multistage sampling method was employed to select 245 urban and 243 rural women from households in Enugu State, Eastern Nigeria. Family Planning, 33 (4) 321-334. A theoretical model suggests that costs (eg, dowries) are unlikely to explain the Son preference—widely documented in countries such as India, China, and Korea—is deeply rooted in social, economic, and cultural factors (Pande and Astone 2007). To learn more, view our, Socio-cultural Factors and Male-Child Preference among Couples in Ilorin-West Local Government Area of Kwara-State, Nigeria, Male Preference and Marital Stability in Cross River State, South South Nigeria, DEMAND FOR CHILDREN AND FERTILITY TRANSITION IN GUMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, BENUE STATE, Escalation of Sex Ratio in Kathmandu Valley.doc, THE EFFECTS OF CULTURAL PRACTICES ON FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR IN GUMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, BENUE STATE. Figure 3 maps the magnitude of our indicator of gender preferences (α 1 + α 2) for countries in which α 1 and α 2 are jointly significant. Amid worries about kidnapped girls, Nigeria’s traditions are unkind, too. ABSTRACT: Son preference is a global phenomenon that is influenced by personal, conjugal, socioeconomic and cultural factors. According to the latest demographic and health survey (financed by the American government), women whose first child is a daughter are likely to have more children than those whose first child is a son. A man reacts as he reunites with his son in Katsina, Nigeria on December 18, 2020. It therefore examined son preference with particular emphasis on Igbo custom in Nigeria and discovered its deep rooted nature in the psyche of the people as well as the fact that it is a violation of the human rights of women and suggested measures to curb same. In Nigeria, the preference for sons is very prevalent and exists in several cultures as it dates back to pre- … The preference for sons is so profound that it even affects a practice which may seem to have little to do with it: fostering. Male-child preference has remained one of the most lasting cultural values among the Igbo of South eastern Nigeria. Studies in . * “Son preference, fertility and family structure”. How my journey to Nigeria started. In Nigeria, the preference for sons is very prevalent and exists in several cultures as it dates back to pre- historic times and it is tied to inheritance, unfortunately it has not succumbed to societal changes but has remained sacrosanct … But not in Africa. These results can partly explain excess female mortality among adult women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Having children in quick succession damages maternal health, since mothers need time to recover after giving birth. Yusuf Y. Mahmood Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2020. A Nigerian boy was tied to a cross for coming late to a private school in Ayetoro, Ogun State, south-west Nigeria on April 16, 2018. By using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies. Being in a polygamous household harms their health and their children’s because of competition for food in the home. By contrast, at its worst, China had 120 boys for every 100 girls. Son Preference and Culture I measure the sex preferences of immigrant women in the United Kingdom by estimating the effect of family composition on birth hazard rates. Exhausted and dishevelled, several hundred Nigerian schoolboys seized in … 17 (1) June, 2013 AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SOCIETY OF NIGERIA (AESON) 2012 – 2014 National Officers President: Mal. This has been corrected. Parents have no need of extra measures to ensure boys are born. Your son or daughter files Form I-485 when a visa becomes available. The woman is regarded as chattel (property) and this dominate its customary laws on marriage, inheritance, succession and … However, before heading to Europe, Johnny needed to take a side trip to Nigeria for a job interview. In this study, the consequences of son preference and its implication on the status of girls and mothers were explored. The preference for sons is also supported by child fostering patterns in which daughters are substitutes for foster girls, while the same does not hold for sons and foster boys. Boko Haram claims kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian students. Design, setting and participants Data on 79 953 children aged 6–23 months were obtained from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) for the period spanning 2003–2013. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. By Annamaria Milazzo. Women with first-born daughters are 1.2 percentage points more likely to end up in a polygamous union. Almost a fifth of families in Nigeria send a child away to be brought up in another household, often that of a cousin or distant family member. Katsina state governor says 344 boys abducted from their school in northwestern Nigeria last Friday have been freed. Every Nigerian Father, irrespective of his economic or social status, desires a male child. A discussion about how son preference has … And, if their first three children are daughters, they are very likely to have a fourth very quickly (within 15 months). In every tribe in africa male children are very important in the family. The strongest son preferences are observed in countries with ratios exceeding 120: Mauritania, Pakistan, Senegal, Guinea, Nepal, Azer- baijan, Jordan, Mali, Armenia, Niger, India, and Chad. That’s when things took a turn. Son-preference damages maternal health, makes marriage trickier for women, increases polygamy and alters the institution of child-fostering, which is widespread in west Africa. However, our data show … In Nigerian generally and in Igbanke in particular the issue of a male child preference may not be as blatant as what obtains in Asia, but it exists nonetheless. Permanent resident (Green Card holder) petitioning for your child, son, or daughter: You file Form I-130. preferences: son preference prevails in patrilineal ethnic groups only. Otherwise, countries are classified as «no preference». Women are in You can download the paper by clicking the button above. 27 We find evidence of son preference in North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt), Mali and Senegal, and also in the Great Lakes region (Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania). The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 15th of And in Nigeria, a family without a male child is always unhappy. See the Visa Bulletin and Green Card pages. Among women aged 30 to 49, those with first-born girls are more likely to be divorced, have a non-resident husband or be the head of a household. What are the advantages a male child has over a female child since both of them can take care of the family. The need for sons changes fertility patterns. The need to produce sons may also help explain Nigeria’s maternal-mortality rate of 550 deaths per 100,000 live births—one of the highest rates in the world, even though Nigeria is now a middle-income country. The issue of son preference is another pernicious violence against women for which the need to protect the girl-child is necessary and desirable in most societies of the world. One might expect that women living in economically more developed areas and those from wealthier families would be less likely to exhibit son preference. Moreover, in Nigeria, there are plenty of both: the fertility rate is 6.0, meaning the average woman can expect to have six children, or three sons. Son preference in a rural vil lage in North Vietnam. This paper considers a country in Sub-Saharan Africa and finds that parental gender preferences do affect fertility behavior and shape traditional social institutions with negative effects on adult women's health and well-being. Households with several boys foster girls to help with the chores. But households with girls do not foster boys: they keep on trying to have a son of their own.