Despite all that women have accomplished and continue to do so on a day-to-day basis, there are still societies that think otherwise. Not only are they averse to seeing women progress but have a preference for male child – which for many liberals may find absurd in today’s day and age.
It’s just frustrating to discuss the importance of gender equality in 2021. Isn’t that obvious? Shouldn’t we be creating equal platforms for the next generation of boys and girls? Can’t girls just be themselves? And let’s say it once and for all, no, they don’t need to be “allowed” to do things.
This toxic patriarchy is not only costing us progress but is causing fewer girls to be born in countries where there’s a preference for male child.
4.7 Million Fewer Girls To Be Born In Countries That Prefer Male Children
Image Source: Pexels
That’s not us saying but a new study suggests so.
The study states that by 2030 about 4.7 million fewer girls will be born in countries with a preference for male child. This comes as “excessive” male births have been predicted to decline in the coming years.
This will bring a major gender imbalance in countries that choose to use gender selection to expand their families.
Researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, the National University of Singapore, the University of Massachusetts, the United Nations, and the Centre de Sciences Humaines, collaborated for the study.
They discovered that countries that have participated in prenatal sex selection for decades will be severely affected by gender sustainability. There is going to be a “surplus of young men,” the study suggests. And it will impact nearly one-third of the world’s population.
The study published in the BMJ Online Health journal found that by projecting the sex ratio at birth from now through 2100, there was a possibility of fewer girls being born.
This also raises bigger questions about how the population imbalance will affect the growth an economy.
Fewer Female Births Will Lead To An Ageing Society
The Human Rights Watch also suggests that many of these men will never marry, which will make the future generations much smaller – causing the population to become an ageing society.
The gender imbalance will majorly impact the world’s biggest populations including China and India, where there is a larger male to female ratio.
Time suggests that once the population size peaks, it will spiral into an “unstoppable decline” that can have devastating impacts on the economy as well as the future generations.
Female Births To Decline By 22.1 Million In Countries With Preference For Male Child
Image Source: Pexels
On similar lines, the researchers developed two separate projection scenarios to study the impact of the lack of female births over the last several decades and how that will impact the future.
The researchers reviewed data from over 200 countries comprising 3.26 billion birth records of babies born between 1970 and 2020.
In the first scenario, the study used countries that already had a skewed gender balance between men and women. The study found that past generations choosing to have more male over female babies could lead to 4.7 million fewer female births in these countries between 2021 and 2100.
In the second scenario, the have countries have a desire to have more male babies over female babies. In this case, the number of female births declined by 22.1 million.
The study, however, did not take sex-selective abortions into consideration for babies born between 1970 and 2020. It did not have a baseline either for some populations when it comes to the natural ratio for male vs female births.
However, the projections do hold the countries with gender imbalance in a negative light.
As a result, more needs to be done about monitoring the population. But more importantly, people need to be educated and informed about what it means to have disproportionate population ratios.
Sadly, China and India lead the world when it comes to gender imbalance. This will not only create an ageing society but can trigger social and economic collapse.
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