Son preference

Son preference and daughter aversion are harmful social and gender norms rooted in gender inequality. 

Most of our societies assign a higher social status to men and boys. As a result, male children are valued more than female children. 

With gender inequality as a common denominator, a range of social, economic and cultural factors contribute to son preference and daughter aversion. These may include religious practices in which only men may participate, or restrictions on women’s rights to inherit land and property or to gain employment and earn money. In some contexts, customs related to marriage – such as requiring a bride’s family to pay a dowry – also play a role. 

Especially where resources are scarce or there is pressure to have small families, such factors may motivate families to want to avoid having daughters. 

In some contexts, son preference and daughter aversion drive gender-biased sex selection, a harmful practice that can manifest before or after birth. 

In prenatal sex selection, families use methods including implantation of embryos and sex-selective abortion to ensure the birth of a boy or avoid the birth of a girl. After birth, discrimination within the family can lead to the neglect of a daughter’s basic needs, such as nutrition, health care and education.

In addition to its devastating impact on individuals, gender-biased sex selection can affect the structure of populations. Normal human biology results in around 102 to 106 boys born for every 100 girls – but when many more boys are born than girls, it is a sign that gender-biased sex selection is taking place. Sex ratios at birth as high as 130 boys per 100 girls have been observed.

Son preference and daughter aversion have severe impacts on the health, rights and futures of women and girls worldwide.

Son preference exposes women to increased risks of reproductive coercion as well as sexual, physical and economic violence by intimate partners or family members. 

Pressure to have a son can prevent women from accessing contraception, and increases their likelihood of unwanted or short-spaced pregnancies – heightening the risks for both mother and child. 

Women may be forced to carry a risky pregnancy to term if they’re carrying a boy, or forced to terminate a pregnancy if they’re carrying a girl. In many contexts, a lack of safe abortion services forces them to rely on unsafe measures, with high risks of complications and death.

For girls, daughter discrimination results in poorer health and well-being as well as reduced capabilities and opportunities, as households allocate more resources towards their sons than their daughters.

Ending son preference, daughter aversion and gender-biased sex selection requires transforming the social and gender norms that perpetuate them. 

The work starts with research to understand how these norms manifest in behaviours, attitudes and practices, and how they are reinforced at the level of individuals, families, communities, institutions and societies. 

Empowering women and girls is the keystone of all approaches to end harmful practices rooted in gender inequality. It entails ensuring that girls and women have access to educational and economic opportunities, sexual and reproductive health care and other essential services, so that they are equipped with everything they need to make informed decisions about their bodies and their lives.

Another important strategy is engaging men and boys to challenge social and gender norms that devalue women and girls. Some programmes focus on fathers, to promote their involvement in caretaking, while others focus on mobilizing adolescent boys and young men as champions of gender equality. 

Community leaders and other prominent figures, such as faith leaders, media professionals, celebrities, and health care workers, play a key role in social-norms change. They can help influence their communities, spread accurate information, combat gender stereotypes, encourage difficult but necessary conversations, and help reduce social pressure to continue observing harmful norms and practices. 

Another critical part of the work is reforming legal and policy frameworks, to ensure that they comply with human rights commitments. This entails amending discriminatory laws and policies, enacting ones that empower women and girls to exercise their rights, and holding institutions accountable for protecting those rights, including the right to bodily autonomy and the right to live free from violence and discrimination.

For more than 20 years, UNFPA has been a leader in the global movement to end harmful practices, including gender-biased sex selection, child marriage and female genital mutilation. 

Every Girl Counts is UNFPA’s strategy to end son preference and daughter aversion, as the most sustainable pathway to eradicate gender-biased sex selection and other forms of discrimination against girls, and to achieve gender equality. This work is integral to UNFPA’s commitment to its third transformative result, ending gender-based violence and all forms of harmful practices by 2030.

Every Girl Counts places women and girls at the centre of all its work, and uses gender-transformative and human rights-based interventions to delve into the deep roots of gender-unequal norms, as well as seeking to transform the power relations that perpetuate gender inequality. 

Every Girl Counts is supported by the European Union and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, and is currently implemented in six countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. UNFPA implements related programmes in India and China, and monitors the situation of women and girls in 18 other countries where son preference and daughter aversion are observed.

UNFPA has been a leader in generating new research to bring this complex area of work into programming spaces. Our convening power has helped strengthen advocacy and dialogue across countries facing similar challenges, expanding our collective knowledge – and spreading the commitment to end son preference and daughter aversion. 

Last updated 04 October 2023