China’s one-child policy has created an unequal and imbalanced society, but there is a reason males are more valued than females. Males are the only ones who can carry on the family name or legacy they may have created, making them more desirable than females. They carry land rights and pass things down such as inheritance. Also, it is their responsibility to take care of their parents in their old age or in sickness, whereas daughters are not. They are also referred to as the “breadwinners”, and are obligated to help out financially if needed. The workforce in China is predominantly males, making it easier for them to find work. One of the main advantages of having a son is that it is more economically sufficient in the long run. Families have these notions in the back of their head when they conceive, and having the one-child policy bears a burden on them that their one child must be male. They simply carry on traditions and pass things down from generation to generation. They run the work force and provide much more than a female could.
The one-child policy only magnifies the discrimination towards daughters, because they can only have one child. “Once the ‘one-child’ law was enforced, first giving birth to a girl placed a lot of families in an unfortunate position. The result of this was a high rate of baby girls being abandoned right after birth, a high rate of infanticide and an even higher number of unregistered baby girls” (Pascu 105). As technology advanced couples began to pre-natal sex determination to find out the sex of the baby, and if it were not a boy they would abort the child. The sex ratio differences between males and females have major impacts on society. The surplus of men is allowing females to “marry up” in society, whereas they would usually not be able to do. With the percentage of women being so low, the upper class men will accept a lower class woman, but that leaves the lower class men with few options. This is suggested to cause a spike in crime rates in China. In China getting married and having a family is tradition and in a sense expected of the male. If he is not able to do that it is