Economic Determinants of Son Preference in Islamabad-Pakistan

Authors

  • Farrah Ahmad Department of Sociology, International Islamic University, Islamabad
  • Amber Ferdoos Department of Sociology, International Islamic University, Islamabad
  • Farhan Ahmad Faiz Department of Sociology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Keywords:

Patriarchy, Patriarchal family tendencies, Sex selection, Son preference, Socio-economic, Economic causes and effects.

Abstract

Since the emergence of mankind on mother earth, preference for sons has been evident in every aspect of life and the same situation persists to date. Son preference has persisted in the face of sweeping economic and social changes in a country like Pakistan as herein families are now tended to have more sons than daughters to stabilize their future economic condition. This research aimed to assess the reason that set into motion this very phenomenon of sex selection and its consequent impacts in the economic realms. The prime concern was to comprehend how certain cultures manufacture and perpetuate gender roles in general and patriarchal tendencies in particular that are created by individuals within a society who choose to imbue a particular structure with meaning. The supremacy of the male child is engineered and hence knitted well into our patriarchal socio-cultural and economic structure from which one cannot be aloof to escape from this labeling, and to support the practice of non-medical gender selection, ‘family balancing’ has taken the position. As the approach of the study was quantitative research, sampling of the study was a probability sampling technique, data was collected through a Face-to-Face structured interview schedule and lastly, analysis was done through SPSS. The study denotes that the son preference is the product of multifaceted psychological, social, and economic causes. It can be concluded that there are psychological, social, and economic causes as well as impacts that comprise some factors which have more importance for the nuanced interpretation of the son preference than the overall factors themselves.

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Published

2023-08-18