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The decline of son preference and rise of gender indifference in Taiwan since 1990

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Tin-chi Lin

 
VOLUME 20 - ARTICLE 16
PAGES 377 - 402
Date Received: 21 May 2008
Date Published: 16 Apr 2009

http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol20/16/

doi:10.4054/DemRes.2009.20.16
   
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Abstract
This study explores the change of married women’s sex preference for children in Taiwan since 1990, finding that there was a substantial decline of son preference and rise of “gender indifference”, defined as feeling indifferent about children’s sex (as opposed to desiring an equal number of boys and girls, in which the sex of children is still a primary consideration). Results show that at the individual level female education was the strongest predictor for the preference; education was negatively associated with son preference and positively with gender indifference. Cohort difference was noticeable as well. Younger cohorts were better educated than older ones hence they were more neutral about the sex and less adherent to the traditional male preference. In addition from 1992 to 2002 there was a universal intra cohort movement toward gender neutrality and away from son preference. When the younger cohorts gradually replaced the older ones as the main child bearers in Taiwanese society, at the aggregate level son preference declined and gender indifference rose.

Author's affiliation
Tin-chi Lin
Princeton University, United States of America

Keywords
education, gender indifference, son preference, Taiwan

Word count (Main text)
6989

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