Changes in female status and disappearing son-preference in Republic of Korea

In Republic of Korea, patriarchal family system has brought about imbalanced sex ratio at birth and it kept prevailed even in the mid-1990. However, sex ratio at birth steadily declined since the mid-1990 unlikely other Asian countries. Since imbalanced sex ratio at birth is caused by son preference, this study will examine the factors that might have influenced to the decline of son preference, with particular emphasis on the status of women in society and in household.
Data collected from the Korea National Fertility and Family Health Surveys of 1994, 2003 and 2009 was used. The survey involved women who were aged 15-49 and ever-married. Dependent variable is women’s opinion on “must have a son”. Independent variables are the socioeconomic status of women such as education and occupation level, women’s position in the household when it comes to decision-making and autonomy in the household.
Logistic regression analysis indicates that the influence of married women’s status in the society and household on son preference is varied in different years. In past, women who have lower status in society tend to have higher son preference. However, as the society kept developing, women’s son preference is much more affected by women’s status in household than societal factors.