WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND TRADITION COLLIDE: FROM GENDER BIAS TO SEX SELECTION

Abstract

Every year as a result of prenatal sex selection 1.5 million girls around the world are missing at birth -- It is as if the entire female population of Nairobi simply disappeared. This alarming trend is the result of a perfect storm of three phenomena: the underlying and deep-seated gender inequities that lead parents to value sons over daughters; a trend toward smaller families; and modern medical technologies that can determine fetal sex early and cheaply. This brief focuses on the motivations and mechanisms behind the increase of prenatal sex selection; outlines regions and countries that have skewed sex ratios at birth; and explores the negative social economic and development effects on individuals communities societies and countries. While prenatal sex selection was once thought to be unique to India and China it actually threatens all regions where these three phenomena are converging. The practice now exists in other countries in South and East Asia as well as in eastern Europe and could emerge in Africa in the not-too-distant future. Policymakers need to be aware of the practices potential growth and how it threatens gender equality and progress in their own countries. With increasingly accessible technologies paving the way for further expansion now is the time to learn from interventions that have shown promise in exposing or stopping the practice of sex selection..