From the book The Tentative Pregnancy: How Amniocentesis Changes the Experience of Motherhood, in which the author describes studies showing a preference for sons among US families:
“The libraries are piled high with studies showing that both women and men prefer boys to girls as their first child. In three child families, they prefer two boys and a girl to two girls and a boy. This finding shows up in surveys when the question is posed abstractly, say, to college students about the “ideal family.” It shows up in action when we see that all girl families are more likely to go on to a next pregnancy that are families with the same number of children but including a son; and when we see shorter birth intervals following the birth of a daughter than following a son.
The existence of son preference is further substantiated in the more detailed studies of women’s experiences with pregnancy and early motherhood. Myra Leifer, a psychologist who closely followed 19 women through their first pregnancies, found that 14 of them reported a preference for a boy and two hoped to have a girl. Three women expressed no clear preference. Ann Oakley, interviewing 60 women in depth and repeatedly throughout their first pregnancies, found less willingness to report boy preference ahead of time. 54% said they wanted a boy, 22% a girl, and 25% said they didn’t mind which it was. But she found a very great difference once the baby arrived. The women said they were unwilling to admit a preference beforehand, but once the babies were born, 93% of the mothers of sons said that they were pleased with the sex of their babies, and only 55% of the mothers of daughters said they were pleased.
In all of the reported instances where sex selection techniques are offered… It is boys people try to achieve.” ”
Sources cited:
Myra Leifer, Psychological Effects of Motherhood: A Study a First Pregnancy (New York: Praeger, 1980) 84
Ann Oakley, Becoming a Mother (New York: Schocken Books, 1980) 118
Both the studies above show a preference for sons among Americans. This preference for sons might lead to sex-selection abortions.
Barbara Katz Rothman. The Tentative Pregnancy: How Amniocentesis Changes the Experience of Motherhood (New York: WW Norton & Company, 1993) 133 – 134
