From gender inequality to prenatal sex selection: comparative analysis of son preference in Hai Duong and Ninh Thuân provinces, Vietnam

Several Asian countries experience an unbalanced sex ratio at birth. If the trend has existed in China and India for over 20 years, it is a very recent phenomenon in Vietnam – it was established in 2008 -, but also extremely rapid. The national sex ratio at birth in 2011 was 112 boys for 100 girls, and exceeded 115 in 18 provinces out of 63. The rising proportion of male births is linked to prenatal sex selection.
This work is based on the comparison of two qualitative surveys, implemented in Hai Duong and Ninh Thuân provinces, in order to understand more about the root cause for son preference, and the different kinds of “pressure” within the family and the community, which lead some women to have sex-selective abortions. If the kinship system in Hai Duong province appears to be strongly patriarchal, hence the necessity to produce a male heir who will perform the ancestor’s worship and carry on the family name (SRB was 120.2 in 2009), we postulate that the situation in Ninh Thuân province is somewhat different (SRB was 110.8 in 2009). Indeed, Ninh Thuân has one of the largest concentrations of Cham people in the country, an ethnic group with a bilateral kinship system - therefore, the need for sons is less prominent, as married daughters still belong to their family clan.