Fertility and Son Preference in Korea

Abstract

In Korea, total fertility declined from 6.0 in 1960 to 1.6 in 1990, in spite of a strong preference for male offspring. This paper addresses the notion that son preference hinders fertility decline, and examines the effects of patriarchal relations and modernization on fertility using the 1991 Korea National Fertility and Family Health Survey. It was found that women who have a son are less likely to have another child, and that women with a son who do progress to have another child, take longer to conceive the subsequent child. This pattern prevailed for women of parity one, two, and three, and became more pronounced with higher parity. A multivariate analysis showed that preference for male offspring, patriarchy, and modernization are all strong predictors of second, third, and fourth conceptions.

Why is Son preference so persistent in East and South Asia? a cross-country study of China, India and the Republic of Korea

“…In some cases parents depend on another son, if for example if the eldest does not have a son or is living in another city, but this represents a departure from the norm. Since the eldest son is supposed to be responsible not only for the parents but also for the ancestors, this places an additional source of pressure for them to have a son-and this is reflected in our analysis of survey data which show that the eldest son's wife has a significantly higher probability than other women, of having additional conceptions if she has not yet borne a son (Larsen, Chung, and Das Gupta 1998).…”

“…Thus the consequences of not meeting the full ideal number of sons are far more drastic when fertility declines-putting couples today under much more pressure to avoid having daughters. The Korean data indicate little evidence of a desire to have at least one daughter to balance out the sex composition of the family (Larsen, Chung, and Das Gupta 1998).…”

“…This would seem to be an important economic reason for wanting to have sons. The Korean data, for example, indicate that this factor is significantly associated with higher son preference after controlling for many socioeconomic factors (Larsen, Chung, Das Gupta 1998). …”

Educational differentials in cohort fertility during the fertility transition in South Korea

“…The sustained decline in period fertility rates finally caused the government to abandon the program in the late 1980s, leaving contraceptive distribution to the private and commercial sectors. Meanwhile, unbalanced sex ratios at birth and selective abortions emerged in the 1990s after new techniques for detecting the sex of the fetus were introduced (Larsen, Chung, and Das Gupta 1998). In 1996, the government officially adopted a new population policy with an emphasis on reproductive health care services.…”

Variations in attitudinal gender preferences for children across 50 less-developed countries

“…High sex ratios at birth reflecting son preference have been detected in China (e.g., Zeng et al 1993), India (e.g., Arnold, Kishor, and Roy 2002), and South Korea (e.g., Park and Cho 1995). Son preference has also been observed in connection with the cessation of childbearing among women in countries such as Bangladesh (e.g., Rahman and DaVanzo 1993), Egypt (e.g., Vignoli 2006), India (e.g., Arokiasamy 2002), Nepal (e.g., Morgan and Niraula 1995), South Korea (e.g., Larsen, Chung, and Das Gupta 1998), and Vietnam (e.g., Bélanger et al 2003).…”