Koreans now prefer daughters over sons as society changes

[SHUTTERSTOCK]

More parents in Korea now prefer daughters over sons, according to data.

A 39-year-old mother living in Suwon, Gyeonggi, gave birth to a daughter last year, despite having two sons already.

After she talked with her husband about having a daughter, they both started to take care of their health and diet. She started eating lot of meat while her husband ate fruits and vegetables after looking up on how to conceive a baby daughter.

None of the methods were scientifically proven, but the two tried almost everything said to help in conceiving a girl as they were so desperate.

“Sons are cute and reliable but many are likely to have daughters since it is relatively more difficult to raise sons who are stronger and more active than daughters,” the mother said.

The shift in views towards their children is affecting the sex ratio of the newborns. The number of male births over 100 female births reached a new low last year at 104.7, according to Statistics Korea. This figure went as high as 116.5 in 1990 when people highly preferred sons.

The same figure for a third child rose to 189.9 boys to 100 girls in 1990, which dropped to 105.4 last year.

The number is dropping by regions as well. Just about 20 to 30 years ago, many parents who had two daughters conceived a baby son as their child, but now it is the opposite.

The sex ratio of a third child in Incheon was at 89.9 in 2021 and around 90 in Busan, Gwangju, Daejeon and North Chungcheong, meaning that there were more daughters born than sons.

More daughters were born as the second child in Daejeon and Jeju in 2019 and Gangwon and Sejong in 2020 and 2021.

“I was so worried that my second child would be a son,” a 37-year-old who has a four-year-old son said after giving birth to a baby girl last month.

“When I was young, I was hurt after hearing that I would have not been born if my younger brother was born earlier, but now it is different.”

In regions like Daegu and North Chungcheong, the change in the preference is more evident.

In 1990 when the sex ratio of the third child nationwide remained at 193.7, the figure in Daegu reached 392.2 and in North Gyeongsang 294.4. Those numbers dropped to 107.2 and 111.3, respectively, in 2021.

“In Daegu and North Chungcheong, people preferred sons for the sake of carrying on the family lineage, but both the older and the younger generation now think differently,” said Kim Hu-nam, head of a nursing home in Daegu.

According to experts, parents no longer expecting sons to support them is one reason why parents these days prefer daughters over sons.

“As the children’s generation lives in an economically unstable environment compared to the parent’s generation, there are fewer parents who are expecting their sons to look after them,” said Lee Sam-sik, director of the Institute of Aging Society.

“Now parents are relying on the government welfare policies for family support and as they value connection between them and their children more importantly now, there is a tendency that daughters are better than sons in this sense.”

Daughters are also seen better in taking care of their old parents.

“Around 80 percent of children who come to meet their parents in our nursing facility are daughters,” said Kim.

“Daughters usually come with their parent’s favorite home-cooked meals and daily goods, meeting them for the full 30 minutes allowed, but sons mostly leave after about ten minutes,” said Kim.

According to Kim, the center looks after 200 people, and those who are in active contact with the center are usually daughters.

“The tradition of the first son to support parents is disappearing, and as daughters are better in taking care of their parents, the preference for daughters is rising,” said Cho Young-tae, professor at the Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Health.

BY SHIN SEONG-SIK, ESTHER RHEE [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]