Due to the extreme bias in favor of male babies, China now has 32 million more boys than girls, under the age of 20. This is according to a study done by two Chinese professors and a London researcher. They attribute this huge gender disparity to the fact that Chinese couples decide to abort female fetuses in great numbers.
I have always been aware (as many of us have), of the fact that girls are preferred over boys in China, and that methods of getting rid of them did not, and perhaps still do not, simply consist of abortion; but by ways that involve doing away with them once they were born.
I have read that there are several reasons for preferring boys, and they all seem to be based on issues of economic practicality and just plain tradition, so it seems to me.
Nevertheless one would think that these practices would have disappeared once the communist leader Mao came along.
This study (which was published online by the British Medical Journal, womensnews.com reports) reveals that that is far from the case, and this is regrettable to a tragic degree.
With all those extra 32 million boys running around, I suppose that China's birthrate will drop. The fact that girls are so outnumbered means they must struggle that much harder for everything - from maintaining their dignity in a nation that seemingly does not respect them, to simple basic human rights.