# **_1. Levels and Trends in Sex-Selection_**

Child sex ratios as shown in the South Caucasus country censuses from 1959 to 2010 show a sharp rise after the dissolution of the USSR, but the situation seems to be improving now (Figure 1). The initial rise in the 1990s was the sharpest in Armenia, but since then it seems to have plateaued and declined a little. Child sex ratios continued to rise in Azerbaijan and Georgia until around 2010, but since then they seem to have fallen quite sharply in Georgia, while rising at a much slower pace than before in Azerbaijan. The child sex ratios are the least sensitive to random fluctuation, since they comprise a 5-year age group.<sup>3</sup> The region shows the patterns found in other settings with strong son preference. Figure 2 shows the classic pattern of rising sex ratios at birth with birth order,<sup>4</sup> as parents become increasingly concerned to ensure that they have a son. Duthe et al (2012) first noted this pattern in this region.

The quality of vital registration deteriorated just after the dissolution of the USSR, but has improved.<sup>5</sup> The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Reproductive Health Surveys (RHS) indicate that birth registration is now fairly complete in these countries,<sup>6</sup> so estimates based on them are robust.

Another classic pattern in such settings is excess female mortality after birth,<sup>7</sup> especially where people have low physical or financial access to prenatal sex-selection technology. Successive demographic surveys in this region show that mortality at ages 1-11 months was a little higher among girls than boys in Armenia and Azerbaijan — contrary to the biological norm — but this is found in only one of three surveys in Georgia (Table 1). However, other measures of gender equality are high (Section 2).

# **_2. Would sex-selection be expected to be found in this region?_**

On the face of it, one would not expect to find high levels of sex-selection in the South Caucasus countries. Although the main ethnic groups in the region had traditional kinship systems like those that make for strong son preference in other parts of Asia, the region was transformed under the USSR. It has long been quite urbanized and there is considerable gender equality in indices of participation in public life: factors that the literature indicates help make sons and daughters more equally valuable to their parents. For example, with its blistering pace of urbanization and development, the Republic of Korea experienced a rapid turnaround in sexselection from among the highest levels in Asia in the mid-1990s, to almost none today (Chung and Das Gupta 1997).

## **_2.1 Traditional kinship systems_**

Where sex-selection has been found elsewhere in Asia, the traditional kinship systems are strongly patrilineal, in which daughters are transferred to their husband’s family at the time of marriage, and expected to care for their in-laws rather than their parents (Das Gupta et al 2003). This makes daughters less valuable to their parents than sons. It also means that cooperation and support is primarily among those who are related through the male line, and far less among kin by marriage.

3