Son Preference Sex Selection, Gender and Culture in South Asia [Hardcover]

The preference for male children transcends many societies and cultures, making it an issue of local and global dimensions. While son preference is not a new phenomenon and has existed historically in many parts of Asia, its contemporary expressions illustrate the gendered outcomes of social power relations as they interact and intersect with culture, economy and technologies.

Son Preferencebrings together key debates on the subject of son preference by assessing existing work in the field and providing new insights through primary research. The book covers a broad range of social science discussions and draws upon textual and ethnographic material from India.

Son Preferencewill be useful to students, scholars, activists and anyone interested in the issues surrounding gender inequity, sex selection and skewed sex ratios.

An accessible and stimulating book for students, academics, and anyone interested in this highly sensitive and contentious issue, Son Preference provides a valuable addition to anthropological and sociological analyses and proposes new directions for ethnographic research. Dr Sunil Khanna, Oregon State UniversityNavtej K. Purewalis Lecturer in Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester.

Introduction * Chapter One: Mapping Knowledges of Son Preference * Chapter Two: Colonial and Postcolonial Discourses and Contexts * Chapter Three: Towards a Political Economy of the 'Boy Child' and 'Girl Child' * Chapter Four: Sex Selection and Anti-Sex Selection: Policy, Activism and Resistance * Chapter Five: Narratives of Reproductive Choice and Culture in the Diaspora * Chapter Six: Son Preference and Popular Culture: Gendered Dialogues and Social Critiques * Chapter Seven: Conclusion