Missing Girls in South Korea: Trends, Levels and Regional Variations
Doo-Sub Kim*
A large number of historical documents, proverbs, folklore and taboos show the existence of a strong preference for sons in Korea (Lee, 1973; Kim, 1969, pp. 218-374). As a result of the social and economic advantages attached to males, son preference is embedded in the traditional social organization of Korea, particularly through the kinship system and related normative culture (Kwon and Lee, 1976; Cho et al., 1982). Gender preference was so marked in traditional Korea that a wife bearing no son could be abandoned by her husband or rejected by his family. Despite rapid socioeconomic changes, son preference persists in Korea as an institutionalized value.
The desire to have sons plays an important role in determining family size. Some studies have pointed out that strong son preference might impede efforts to attain low fertility (Park, 1983; Arnold, 1985; Arnold and Liu, 1986). However, this concern has proved to be groundless. In spite of a strong son preference, Korea has achieved a fertility rate way below the replacement level (1.3 in 2001), as have a number of eastern Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (UN, 2002).
In the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s, however, to accommodate both a strong son preference and low fertility, a new demographic phenomenon emerged in Korea: the rise of the male/female sex ratio at birth (i.e. excess of male births relative to female). This phenomenon of "missing girls" was also observed in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (Roy, 1994; Park and Cho, 1994).
The main objective of this study is to understand the origins and the mechanisms underlying the recent increase in the sex ratio at birth in Korea. We will also examine the pattern of changing trends and regional differentials in sex ratios from 1980 to 2003. Causal factors and implications of son-selective reproductive behaviour are discussed. Two demographic simulations were conducted to show how prenatal sex screening and sex-selective abortion raise the sex ratio at birth, and, at the same time, play a role in lowering the level of fertility.
* Department of Sociology, Hanyang University, Seoul.
Population-E 2004, 59(6), 865-878
