More parents prefer girls to boys • FRANCE 24 English

More parents prefer girls to boys • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] hello I’m Annette Young and welcome to the 51% a show about women reshaping our world coming up British MPs vote to decriminalize abortion in England and Wales making it the biggest change in reproductive rights in almost 60 years also how statistics are revealing a preference for boys is declining rapidly especially in regions where it used to be the strongest i’ll be talking shortly to Swedish sociologist Lisa Ecklund and how an artist studio in southern Morocco is providing crucial paid employment to local women who create collaborative works of textile art but first and in the UK MPs have voted in favor of a legislative amendment that should decriminalize abortion in England and Wales and stop any woman from facing criminal charges if she chooses to end her pregnancy it comes after growing calls for a change to what was seen as a massively outdated law with the number of women investigated arrested or prosecuted increasing in recent years olivia Salisar Windspear tells us more it’s the biggest change to reproductive rights in the UK since the 1967 Abortion Act the eyes to right 379 the nose to the left 137 so the eyes have it the eyes have it unlock british MPs have voted to decriminalize abortion for women in England and Wales meaning that if they terminate a pregnancy outside of the legal framework they cannot be arrested or go to prison i’m really pleased but obviously uh you know the the the debate has been quite you know toxic and it’s all been very difficult and there’s been a lot of opposition in recent years there’s been an uptick in women being investigated for unlawful abortions police made around 100 requests for medical records over the last 5 years 60 criminal cases were launched and six women had to appear in court that increase in criminal cases is linked to women having access to home abortion medication which doctors began prescribing during the co9 pandemic many of those supporting this change to the law say the judicial and emotional ordeal those women went through was of no benefit to anyone it’s something that we’ve been campaigning for for many years you know this vote today will put an end to the horrendous police investigations many women in this country have been undergoing in in recent years for suspected illegal abortions despite this amendment the protocol for access to an abortion remains the same it is legal up until the 24th week of pregnancy and after that only in case of danger to the mother it also requires the signature of two doctors hailed as a progressive move by many the UK follows France in revisiting its reproductive rights paris enshrined the right to terminate a pregnancy into the French Constitution last year interpreted by many as a reaction to the roll back of the Row versus Wade legislation in the US which led to extreme limitations on abortions in certain states staying in the UK and decades after the fictional James Bond film series even had a female boss Britain’s MI6 is now going to be led by a woman for the first time in the Foreign Intelligence Services 116-year history bla1 Metroelli will become the 18th chief of the organization she said she was both proud and honored to accept the job with Prime Minister Saki Stalmer describing the appointment as historic now for decades we’ve known that having baby boys was far more preferred to baby girls in many parts of the world even more so in developing nations but the tide is turning a recent article in the Economist studying demographic trends has revealed more and more parents appear to prefer girls to boys to talk about why I’m joined by Lisa Ecklund a sociologist from Lund University in Sweden lisa thank you so much for your time why the growing desire to have daughters the desire comes basically from one major shift I would say if you look at it from a global perspective and that is that the uh the the meaning of having a child the value of having a child uh has gradually shifted from being a matter of uh labor supply of of having children who will help uh make a living to to support livelihoods uh helping to support aging parents at old each uh towards something uh much more uh related to emotions and the the the need and the desire to have a child uh for for for personal and more emotional reasons not for economic uh reasons certainly is that Indian proverb isn’t it you know with a daughter you have for life but you only have a son until he takes a wife that’s right so it’s it’s that kind of of of reasoning that a daughter is is closer to you she’s more emotionally uh attached and she is somebody who you have close to you uh throughout uh your life more than a son would would be but that also reflects another shift that has taken place uh in in in in China and in India and other parts of the world where there has been this very strong sense of of of wanting a son relatively speaking um and that is also the the the significance of of of patrineality which means that that family life uh is organized along the the the male side of the family so having a son is very important for passing on the family line uh for taking over their farm or or the business h and it’s that the man who gets married and who uh wants to uh through with his wife looks after their parents at old age and as you mentioned there Lisa it comes after a long historical preference for baby boys especially in countries such as China and India where the event of ultrasounds led to widespread termination of girl fetuses which itself had massive demographic consequences such as a drop in the number of marriageable women that’s right um and in fact this is also a driving force I would say for daughter preference because since men have difficulties uh finding a wife due to this shortage of women uh there is this increasing trend of female hypergamy which means that women marry up so soio economically and for men to be able to attract the wife then he needs to be economically successful often supporting a house having a a car etc uh which means that it’s extremely expensive to raise a son who can become marriageable so some families in China rather don’t have a son which we sometimes call refer to as sun aversion uh so the daughter preference is in fact a reaction to son aversion which is uh sort of based in this uh very expensive uh endeavor of of raising a a son who can become marriageable and and and and and form a family which is very important in a country like China how does the trend compare between richer countries and emerging nations uh I mean in in the the richer countries there has been a a a trend towards daughter preference for a long time uh and it’s basically manifest itself through parents who have already boys uh opting for a second or or or or third uh or fourth child to have a baby girl um and in in uh in in Asian countries in in China for example the daughter preference so far uh is mo more of a a stated preference so there’s not a lot of evidence showing that daughter preference actually leads to certain types of behavior demographic demographically speaking but where does this leave governments in attempting to readress demographic imbalances i mean we’ve already seen what can happen as was the case with China’s one child policy well I think it all boils down to to gender equality actually and I mean both son preference and daughter preference are rooted in an idea that that sons and daughters are fundamentally different and are valued differently and can contribute differently to to their parents um and so I think that it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a very big question of gender equality uh and I think that what we are seeing in the world right now with gender polar polarization and and the gender uh gap widening uh I think we need to understand this emergence of daughter preference in light of these sort of gender polarization that is happening so I think if governments are worried about daughter preference or the persistence of some preference by the way because that has not gone away even though it has dropped uh if governments are are serious about this I think gender equality is really a very big uh needs to be on top of the of the policy agenda for for a long time in the future i think I’m afraid we’re going to have to leave it there thank you so much Lisa thank you to Morocco now where just 19% of women hold steady jobs but in a small fishing village on the Atlantic coast an artist is doing her part to provide paid employment to local women eliza Herbert has the story when Haraja Awat first began work at an embroidery studio in southern Morocco some people in the village called the project nonsense and said that women should stay at home now she says she is proud to have been part of a small but pivotal change in her community i feel like I’ve helped a lot of people and contributed to the development of our village in practical terms this involves 10 women and therefore 10 households some of them are the financial pillars of their families the studio was founded in 2022 by French Moroccan artist Marggo Dei whose practice combines painting sewing and traditional embroidery she wanted to explore her family’s heritage in her father’s native village while also fostering local economic empowerment through the creation of contemporary art so she hired a group of single divorced or widowed women to collaborate in the creative process it’s a project that came about really naturally without any pressure from either side there was a desire to work together there was also a desire to emancipate ourselves through art all the women now have a monthly salary so whatever happens every month every woman gets paid each work is inspired by photos of Margo’s family taken in Morocco in the 1960s then the team chooses the colors and threads the studio has also served as a place of solidarity and dialogue the hope is that it will inspire future generations and that’s it for this edition so until our next show bye for now

How statistics are revealing a preference for boys is dropping rapidly, even in regions where it used to be the strongest. Annette Young asks Swedish sociologist, Lisa Eklund, why this is happening. Also UK MPs have voted in favour of a legislative amendment that should decriminalize abortion in England and Wales, and stop any woman facing criminal charges if she chooses to end her pregnancy. Plus how an artist’s studio in southern Morocco is providing crucial paid employment to local women who create collaborative works of textile art.
#Parenting #Boys #Girls

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