Missing Women

Holly Norrie uncovers the plight of women left behind by development.

It has been 18 years since welfare economist Amartya Sen first made the chilling claim that over 100 million women worldwide are missing. According to a 2007 report for the United Nations Committee on the Situation of Women, 100 million women are simply unaccounted for, their lives cut short by the widespread gender biases that continue to pervade the developing world.

In the developed world, where men and women receive equal access to food, medicine and health care, women on average make up 52 per cent of the population and the ratio of women to men is roughly 1.04. This is taken as the ‘benchmark’ sex ratio, because with equal treatment, women tend to live longer. Yet in many developing countries, this ratio is as low as 0.94, meaning one woman is missing for every 100 people.

The consequences of this disturbing gender imbalance are grave. Alarming increases in violence against women, rape, polygamy and the kidnapping and trafficking of women and girls, have all been attributed to a serious deficit of women in parts of East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.

So why are these women missing? The World Bank and the UN agree that women suffer the adversities of poverty disproportionately. In developing countries where resources are scarce, women often lose out on access to food, medicine, health care and education. This cumulative neglect is manifested in higher female mortality rates. For example, twice as many girls die from diarrhoea than boys in poor suburbs in New Delhi.

Gender violence in strongly patriarchal societies is also a major culprit. A preference for boys in countries such as China, India, Taiwan, South Korea, Pakistan and Bangladesh, has recently been manifested in increased rates of female infanticide and sex selective abortion. In these heavily populated countries, the birth of a boy is seen as a source of pride and financial security, largely because sons are believed to be more likely to support their elderly parents.

The culturally entrenched preference for boys is exacerbated by traditional dowry systems and population control measures like China’s One Child Policy. Despite prohibition by law in 1961, demanding a dowry remains common in rural India and has been blamed for increases in the abandonment, murder and abortion of female babies. Indeed, one Mumbai abortion clinic displayed the slogan, “Better pay 500 rupiahs now than 50,000 rupiahs later”, in reference to a 50,000 rupiah dowry.

With a combined population of 2.5 billion people and a low sex ratio of 0.94, China and India are responsible for the majority of the world’s missing women. This disturbing gender deficit has grown despite the rapid economic development in both countries over the past 30 years. An estimated 80 million women are currently missing in China and India. As incomes rise and sex detection technologies become widespread, sex selective abortions are increasing dramatically. In India, the government reported that 2 million foetuses are aborted annually because they are female.

For those who cannot pay, infanticide and abandonment become the only ways to exercise a preference for sons. The UN Population Fund reports thousands of cases of infanticide each year, especially in parts of India where dowries are high enough to bankrupt some families. Parents blame poverty, with one mother who poisoned her baby with tobacco leaves claiming, “If I could have clothed, fed and given the baby a decent life, I wouldn’t have done what I did.”

The perception of girls as a financial burden appears to be the main motive behind the preference for boys in India and China. Policies that lessen this perceived burden have had extremely positive affects on sex ratios. The state of Kerala in India is renowned for its generous welfare system, in which the government bears most health care and education costs. Despite being relatively underdeveloped, Kerala has India’s lowest gender deficit, with a sex ratio of 1.03 almost on par with the 1.04 benchmark. In contrast, Punjab and Haryana, two of India’s richest states, have sex ratios as low as 0.86 – four million missing women.

Increasing female employment opportunities have also been instrumental in decreasing female mortality. A study by Nancy Qian found that the gender deficit is practically non-existent in tea-producing regions in China, where women‘s smaller frames give them a comparative advantage in picking tea, and the majority of tea plantation workers are women. Qian concludes that “increasing relative adult female income has an immediate and positive effect on survival rates for girls.”

Development policies need to target entrenched gender biases and actively work to improve sex ratios. In particular, the economic disempowerment which renders female children a financial burden must be addressed through increased employment opportunities. Without this, the world’s 100 million missing women will never be found.

Holly Norrie is in her third year of an Economics and Social Sciences degree, majoring in Political Economy and Government and International Relations.