Editing One-child policy (section)

===Disparity in sex ratio at birth===
[[File:Sex ratio at birth in mainland China.png|thumb|upright=1.25|The [[human sex ratio|sex ratio]] at birth in People's Republic of China, males per 100 females, 1980–2010.]]
{{further |Missing women|Missing women of China}}

The [[human sex ratio|sex ratio]] of a newborn infant (between male and female births) in [[People's Republic of China|mainland China]] reached 117:100, and stabilized between 2000 and 2013, about 10% higher than the baseline, which ranges between 103:100 and 107:100. It had risen from 108:100 in 1981—at the boundary of the natural baseline—to 111:100 in 1990.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wei |first=Chen |date=2005 |title=Sex Ratios at Birth in China |url=http://www.cicred.org/Eng/Seminars/Details/Seminars/FDA/papers/18_ChenWei.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718153354/http://www.cicred.org/Eng/Seminars/FDA/papers/18_ChenWei.pdf |archive-date=18 July 2006 |access-date=2 March 2009}}</ref> According to a report by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, there would be 30{{nbsp}}million more men than women in 2020, potentially leading to social instability, and courtship-motivated [[emigration]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 January 2007 |title=Chinese facing shortage of wives |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6254763.stm |access-date=12 January 2007}}</ref> The estimate of 30 million cited for the sex disparity, however, may have been very exaggerated, as birth statistics have been skewed by late registrations and unreported births: for instance, researchers have found that census statistics for women in later stages of life do not match the birth statistics.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zhuang |first=Pinghui |date=30 November 2016 |title=China's 'missing women' theory likely overblown, researchers say |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2050444/chinas-missing-girls-theory-likely-be-overblown-study |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215011815/https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2050444/chinas-missing-girls-theory-likely-be-overblown-study |archive-date=15 December 2019 |access-date=15 December 2019 |website=South China Morning Post}}</ref><ref name="cnn_161201">{{Cite web |last=Jozuka |first=Emiko |date=1 December 2016 |title=Study finds millions of China's 'missing girls' actually exist |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/01/asia/china-missing-girls/index.html |website=CNN}}</ref>

The disparity in the gender ratio at birth increased dramatically after the first birth, for which the ratios remained steadily within the natural baseline over the 20-year interval between 1980 and 1999. Thus, a large majority of couples appeared to accept the outcome of the first pregnancy, whether it was a boy or a girl. If the first child was a girl, and they were able to have a second child, then a couple may have taken extraordinary steps to assure that the second child was a boy. If a couple already had two or more boys, the sex ratio of higher parity births swung decidedly in a feminine direction. This demographic evidence indicates that while families highly valued having male offspring, a secondary norm of having a girl or having some balance in the sexes of children often came into play. Yi Zeng (1993) reported a study based on the 1990 census in which they found sex ratios of just 65 or 70 boys per 100 girls for births in families that already had two or more boys.<ref>{{Citation |last=Zeng |first=Yi |title=Causes and Implications of the Recent Increase in the Reported Sex Ratio at Birth in China |date=1993 |journal=Population and Development Review |volume=19 |issue=June |pages=283–302 |doi=10.2307/2938438 |jstor=2938438 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> A study by {{Harvp | Anderson | Silver | 1995}} found a similar pattern among both Han and non-Han nationalities in Xinjiang Province: a strong preference for girls in high [[parity (biology)|parity]] births in families that had already borne two or more boys.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Anderson |first1=Barbara A |title=Ethnic Differences in Fertility and Sex Ratios at Birth in China: Evidence from Xinjiang |date=1995 |journal=Population Studies |volume=49 |issue=July |pages=211–26 |doi=10.1080/0032472031000148476 |last2=Silver |first2=Brian D}}</ref> This tendency to favour girls in high-parity{{Clarify|date=November 2024|reason=What does this mean?}} births to couples who had already borne sons was later also noted by Coale and Banister, who suggested as well that once a couple had achieved its goal for the number of males, it was also much more likely to engage in "stopping behavior", i.e., to stop having more children.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Coale |first1=Ansley J |author-link=Ansley J. Coale |last2=Banister |first2=Judith |date=December 1996 |title=Five decades of missing females in China |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1235093 |url-status=live |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=140 |issue=4 |pages=421–450 |doi=10.2307/2061752 |jstor=987286 |pmid=7828766 |s2cid=24724998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101023236/https://zenodo.org/record/1235093 |archive-date=1 January 2020 |access-date=5 July 2019 |doi-access=free}} Also printed as {{cite journal |doi=10.2307/2061752 |pmid=7828766 |volume=31 |issue=3 |title=Five decades of missing females in China. |date=Aug 1994 |journal=Demography |pages=459–79 |jstor=2061752 |last1=Coale |first1=Ansley J. |last2=Banister |first2=Judith |s2cid=24724998 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1235093 |access-date=5 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101023236/https://zenodo.org/record/1235093 |archive-date=1 January 2020 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref>

The long-term disparity led to a significant gender imbalance or skewing of the sex ratio. As reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2015, China had between 32{{nbsp}}million and 36{{nbsp}}million more males than would be expected naturally, and this led to social problems. "Because of a traditional preference for baby boys over girls, the one-child policy is often cited as the cause of China's skewed sex ratio [...] Even the government acknowledges the problem and has expressed concern about the tens of millions of young men who won't be able to find brides and may turn to kidnapping women, sex trafficking, other forms of crime or social unrest."<ref name="cbc.ca" /> The situation was not expected improve in the near future. According to the [[Chinese Academy of Social Sciences]], there would be 24 million more men than women of marriageable age by 2020.<ref>{{Citation |title=Online dating a path to marriage for young, busy Chinese |date=Oct 2015 |url=https://beijingtoday.com.cn/2015/10/online-dating-a-path-to-marriage-for-young-busy-chinese/ |work=Beijing today |access-date=31 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151212071638/https://beijingtoday.com.cn/2015/10/online-dating-a-path-to-marriage-for-young-busy-chinese/ |url-status=live |archive-date=12 December 2015}}</ref>

As the gender gap became more prominent due to the preference of male children over female offspring, policy enforcers shifted their attention to promoting the benefits that came with having daughters. In rural, isolated regions of China, the government provided families with a daughter more access to education and other resources such as job opportunities to parents in order to encourage the idea that having a daughter also has a positive impact on the family.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=LEWIS |first=NORAH L. |date=1987 |title=Implementing Social Change: China and the One Child Policy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41420898 |journal=International Review of Modern Sociology |volume=17 |issue=2 |page=247 |issn=0973-2047 |jstor=41420898}}</ref>

In December 2016, researchers at the [[University of Kansas]] reported that the sex disparity in China was likely exaggerated due to administrative under-reporting and delayed registration of females, rather than [[abortion]] and [[infanticide]]. The finding concluded that as many as 10 to 15 million missing women had not been properly registered at birth since 1982.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steger |first=Isabella |date=29 November 2016 |title=It's a myth that China has 30 million "missing girls" because of the one-child policy, a new study says |url=https://qz.com/848715/its-a-myth-that-china-has-30-million-missing-girls-because-of-the-one-child-policy-a-new-study-says |website=Quartz}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Denyer |first=Simon |date=30 November 2016 |title=Researchers may have 'found' many of China's 30 million missing girls |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/30/researchers-may-have-found-many-of-chinas-30-million-missing-girls/}}</ref> The study found that the sex ratios of age groups during the one-child policy were similar to those born in the period without the single-child policy. The study also found significant amounts of females appear after the age of ten due to late registration across different age groups.<ref name="shi_kennedy">{{Cite journal |last1=Shi |first1=Yaojiang |last2=Kennedy |first2=John James |date=December 2016 |title=Delayed Registration and Identifying the "Missing Girls" in China |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=228 |pages=1018–1038 |doi=10.1017/S0305741016001132 |issn=0305-7410 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The reason for under-reporting was attributed to families trying to avoid penalties when girls are born and local government concealing the lack of enforcement from the central government. This implied that the sex disparity of the Chinese newborns was likely exaggerated significantly in previous analyses.<ref name="shi_kennedy" /> Though the degree of data discrepancy, the challenge in relation to the sex-ratio imbalance in China is still disputed among scholars.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cai |first=Yong |date=2017 |title=Missing Girls or Hidden Girls? A Comment on Shi and Kennedy's "Delayed Registration and Identifying the 'Missing Girls' in China" |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/abs/missing-girls-or-hidden-girls-a-comment-on-shi-and-kennedys-delayed-registration-and-identifying-the-missing-girls-in-china/61E21855F8A1D958660973841BBC46FD |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=231 |issue=231 |pages=797–803 |doi=10.1017/S0305741017001060 |s2cid=158924618}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=den Boer |first1=Andrea |last2=M. Hudson |first2=Valerie |date=9 January 2017 |title=Have China's Missing Girls Actually Been There All Along? |url=https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2017/01/chinas-missing-girls-along/ |website=New Security Beat}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Mei |last2=Jiang |first2=Quanbao |date=26 October 2021 |title=Overestimated SRB and Missing Girls in China |journal=Frontiers in Sociology |volume=6 |issue=6 |page=756364 |doi=10.3389/fsoc.2021.756364 |pmc=8576607 |pmid=34765672 |doi-access=free}}</ref>