Women's Empowerment and Son Preference in India

AMRESH SENAPATI, Centre for Development Studies

Son preference is one of the most persistent gender issues/inequalities in South Asia, particularly in India, leading to pre-natal and postnatal discrimination against the girl child. It is reflected in the country's male-biased sex ratios and gender gaps in education, health, and mortality. Women's empowerment has been identified as a holistic strategy of the government to encounter the son preference bias by improving the status and value of women and girl children. However, even though the topic has been intensively studied for three decades in development economics and gender studies, how women’s empowerment affects son preference remains a debate for several reasons. The first reason is the wide variation and disagreement in the definitions/components/indicators used to conceptualize and measure women’s empowerment. The second reason is how women’s empowerment affects son preference remains inconclusive. This paper links women’s empowerment to son preference in the Indian context. Utilizing the latest National Family Health Surveys data, we examine the empirical relationship between women's empowerment and son preference at both micro and macro levels and spells out the pathways. The study's preliminary findings suggest a negative association between women’s empowerment and son preference while a positive relation between women’s empowerment and gender-neutral preference.

Keywords: Fertility, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Gender Dynamics, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

See extended abstract.