WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

INTERVENTIONS TO BALANCE SEX RATIO AT BIRTH IN RURAL CHINA
and such an opinion is still rooted in some rural areas. Several surveys
on people’s fertility desire show that most couples believe that a son
and a daughter constitute the ideal number and structure of children.
But couples are more likely to accept the fact of having only a son with
no daughter, given the limited choice; but the bottom line is “at least a
son.” The desire to have a son may be stronger among some couples,
for example, if the husband is the only son in his family, or if all the
siblings of the husband have only daughters, as explained by a village
woman in her late thirties:
“My husband has three brothers and all of them have only
daughters. When I learnt that my second baby was another
girl, I felt little sorry. I would have a third one if it were allowed.
The government should let me… Now I sometimes
still have an uneasy feeling when I see my
neighbours’ big boy helping them to unload a cart of brick,
I cannot ask my daughters to help me for that kind of
work… Once we sat together and my husband told me,
“everything of you is good, except that you did not give
me a son.”
When we asked about possible reason for a family wanting at least a
boy in the field, answers were:
• Old age support: the elderly need a son (and a daughter-in-law
as well) to provide financial support and daily care;
• For labour: “a boy is important when there is a need for heavy
labour,” “(boys) can help chopping fire woods” and
• An honour to his parents: parents often talk about their sons in
a proud and perky style, “My son ….”
By reviewing all the surveys on fertility desire, one of the
conclusions is that the desired number of children has changed during
the last two decades, but the preference for the sex of children has not
changed very much (Feng and Zhang, 2002).
However, a recent survey found out that young rural couples are
less aware of the function of carrying on the family line, and their
attitude toward traditional roles of husband and wife have also
changed. Compared to middle aged couples, young couples agreed less
often with the traditional family role of men and women (Lei and Shi,
2004). The sex preference of children might not be as strong among
the younger generation.
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