‘Not a bowl of rice, but tender loving care’: from aborting girls to preferring daughters in South Korea

New perspectives on fighting violence against women

Gender-based violence (GBV) and, more specifically, violence against women (VAW) are commonly considered a consequence of a patriarchal structure-a social system granting the senior male absolute authority over the family and the community as a whole. Anthropologists have documented that human male dominance is rooted in evolution, with male violent behavior observed among the great apes. Given that evolution is a continuous process, human progress over millennia has modified pre-existing behavior, demonstrating that humans can move beyond ancestral ways of life over time. Precisely because of the imperative to change and improve, at the global international level as well as in individual countries, strong movements are in action to eliminate GBV/VAW. FIGO has been and continues to be at the forefront of the battle for equality, with initiatives that cover many aspects of this, including the imperative to involve men, who-in the majority of cases-are the perpetrators. Since men are often the root of the problem, they must also be at the forefront of the battle to eradicate it. GBV/VAW comprises many facets, including selective female abortion, infanticide, femicide, honor killing, female genital mutilation, and child marriage. These deeply rooted forms of violence continue to perpetuate gender inequalities, remain major obstacles to health and societal progress, and violate the most basic human rights.

Within-Family Differences in Intergenerational Contact: The Role of Gender Norms in a Patrilineal Society

Intergenerational contact is important to older adults' quality of life, but less is known about within-family differences in older parents' contact between sons and daughters, especially in countries with patrilineal traditions. Applying latent profile analysis to data on 3,228 Korean older adults' frequency of meeting and communication with each of their children, this study identified within-family patterns of intergenerational contact. Nearly half of parents exhibited gender-balanced patterns of meeting across children, while 13% reported "more frequent contact with daughters" and 39% reported "more frequent contact with sons." On the other hand, "equally high contact" (77%) was the most common pattern for communication. Multinomial regression results showed that the derived patterns were differentiated by parents' education, marital status, region, economic satisfaction, health, and depressive symptoms. The results highlighted the enduring nature of patrilineal traditions as well as the differing patterns of contact that Korean older adults have with their children.

A Girl and a Boy, Are a Bundle of Joy: A Rise in Gender-Equitable Fertility Preferences in India

Within the last decade, declining son preference in Asia has given rise to gender-equitable fertility preferences. These include daughter preference, gender indifference, and gender balance. Using five rounds of the India National Family Health Surveys, I investigate the sources of the trends in shifting parental preferences for the gender of their children. Over more than a quarter-century period (1992-1993 to 2019-2021), I find a significant decline in son preference from 40 to 18 percent and an increase in gender-equitable preferences among most subpopulations. Multivariate analysis shows that for all survey years, education and frequent exposure to television significantly increased the odds of gender-equitable preferences. In the last decade, community norms supporting women's employment are also associated with gender-equitable preferences. In addition, decomposition analysis shows that compared to compositional change, social norm change accounts for two-thirds of the rise in gender-equitable preferences. These findings suggest that rising norms of gender equality have the potential to dismantle gender-biased preferences in India.