Son's preference

As kids, my sister and I always complained that my brother was our “parent’s favorite”. We had some material “signals” of this. While my sister and I shared a room, he had a room for himself and all the benefits from that: a TV for himself, a bigger bed and a bigger closet (of course in that time we didn’t understand that it is completely natural that same gender siblings share the room). In the first week of my internship at Pratham I have realized that I will never say again that he is the favorite, after all my parents gave us the same opportunities.

There is strong evidence in rural India that a girl would pursue more education if she is “born again as a boy”. As a 2010 Pratham report suggests: “in rural India, over 15% of children in the age group 15-16 are out of school, with more girls out of school than boys. In educationally backward states like Rajasthan, almost one out of every three girls in this age group is not in school. Similar patterns are visible in industrialized states like Gujarat as well, where the overall proportion of out of school children in the age group 15-16 is 23.5% but the fraction of girls in this age group who are not enrolled in school is 29%. Putting the pieces of the picture together for the current Indian context, we can see that a substantial fraction of children, especially girls, are not in school after age 14 and a significant proportion of this age group is still struggling through upper primary grades.”

Numerous studies have been developed to identify possible explanations for the gender gap in rural India. Among the most common explanations is that parents treat daughters and sons in a different way, commonly known as the “son’s preference” argument. Parents may prefer to invest in sons because they act as old-age security, while girls leave the parent’s house after marriage and thus, the returns to a daughter’s investment are reaped by her in-laws’ family. Some papers suggest that this attitude is also exhibited by mothers; they invest in their sons to win them as allies and insurance against an uncertain future in a patriarchal world. The result is less investment in health, nutrition and education of the girls.

In the next posts I will discuss other explanations for the gender gap. Sadly, most of the studies argue that the discrimination against girls is difficult to explain. However, what I can argue strongly is that, even thought my complaints, my parent's do not have a "son's preference". In fact, my siblings and I studied at high quality schools and colleges and even had the chance to study a master's degree (as the youngest sibling, I am the only one that have not completed it yet). I hope my siblings read this post and never say again that my parent's prefer one of us!

(My siblings and I)