Turning to the contribution of changes in “population composition” to the decline in son preference between 1991 and 2003, we find that increases in women’s education contributed as much as 19 percent of the total decline, particularly the increases in the proportions of women in the highest education group. Changes in husbands’ education levels have a more mixed and muted effect. Another 11 percent of the decline is contributed by increases in the proportion living in small cities. Increases in the proportion living in metropolitan cities have the opposite effect, possibly because those with high levels of education are concentrated in large cities and so the education variable captures the effect of residence in large cities.<sup>31</sup>

# **7.   Discussion**

South Korea is a trendsetter in Asia in terms of development, and now also in reversing the trend of rising child sex ratios (Figure 1). We have sought to analyze this case to understand how son preference is affected by development, and to throw light on the prospects for achieving more equitable child sex ratios elsewhere in Asia.

We discussed the cultural roots of son preference, and how they are affected by development. In Korea, Confucian administrators constructed an authoritarian society based on a rigid system of corporate patrilineages subservient to the king. Corporate loyalty was underpinned by ancestor worship rituals, with the threat of supernatural sanctions if people did not carry out their filial duties — of which the primary one was to bear sons to assure the continuity of the corporate group. Lineage membership passed strictly through the male line, and determined much of an individual’s access to economic opportunities and social status. Women were thoroughly marginalized in this system.

This pre-industrial social organization disintegrated in the face of industrialization and urbanization. Avenues opened up for obtaining livelihoods and social status which were independent of lineage membership and adherence to familial expectations. The accompanying urbanization resulted in people no longer being surrounded by patrilineal kin in their place of residence and work. This also opened up a possibility for relationships between parents and their children to be driven by affect rather than by rigid rules of gender and birth order. All these changes helped undercut the bases for son preference.

Since Korean surveys ask about underlying son preference, we were able to analyze the factors associated with its reduction. The trend in underlying son preference was unidirectional in a way consistent with modernization — uncomplicated by the sharp changes in actual sex ratios at birth caused by animal years or improved access to sex-selective technology.

Our findings highlight the importance of societal as opposed to individual change in the decline of son preference. A simple comparison of the responses given by women of the same birth cohort when interviewed in 1991 and 2003 shows that the proportion reporting strong son preference in each cohort halved over this period. The multivariate analysis shows that the odds of a woman stating “must have a son” in 2003 were only a third of their 1991 levels, after controlling for a wide range of socio-economic characteristics. A similar decline is evident within each socio-economic group. Our decomposition analysis indicates that nearly three-quarters of the decline in son preference between 1991 and 2003 is attributable to a secular trend of changes in social norms sweeping across the population, and only a quarter is attributable to increases in the numbers of people proportions educated and living in urban areas.

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