They prefer sons. Women who do not bear sons are treated with scorn by their husbands and in-laws, and are seen as failures. Therefore women also prefer sons to daughters. Because sons are seen as providing social security, sons inherit parental property in exchange for care in old age. Generations after generation, patriarchy is enforced by this pattern.
Patriarchal values persist where there is a rural majority, even after revolutionary change.
For example Vietnam s latest land reform program gives individual households registered use-rights in formerly communal land. But the name of only one person in each household is put on the registration certificate, and that person is usually male. Socialist revolution did not remove the belief that only sons can hold the ceremonies to honour the ancestors that bring good fortune to the living. Such beliefs support the idea that men alone should control property, even though in Vietnam there is no laws preventing women from sharing in property rights. The more society devalues women, the less likely women and girls are to be educated, to have good heath care and good food or to make decisions on their own behalf.