China's Gender Gap

In our world today we are victims of a general increasing gap between the amount of females and males in society. Over time we have witnessed a rapid increase in this gender gap in which men are becoming much more prevalent in society. Gender gaps refer to differences or inequalities between men and women, based on factors such as social and cultural factors. The area of our world that requires the most concern is within China. China has displayed a constant increase in the ratio of males to females, which is a direct correlation to their societal preference for sons over daughters. With the most recent consensus, it has displayed that there are nearly 118 males for every 100 females in China. This shows that in the next couple of decades there will be nearly 20 million more men than women in the world. Many institutional and structural arguments have been made to attempt to explain this gap, but the most prominent explanations are present within cultural aspects, specifically the preference for the birth of males instead of females.

The first and arguably most important reasoning behind China's gender gap and the worldwide gender gap in general lies amidst sophisticated cultural arguments. In the Chinese society, men are simply viewed to be superior to women and are seen as more relevant to overall productivity to society. Many researchers have claimed that this ancient preference for sons, along with the help of technological advancements, has led to the ability for sex-selective abortions to become primitive in Chinese societies, which in turn have led to an excessive amount of boys. This view is inevitably the most important aspect to the ever-increasing gender gap. Within the Chinese culture, women have fallen victim to a skewed vision of women in society in which they are viewed as a waste. According to an ancient Hindu saying, "raising a daughter is like watering your neighbors garden." This saying shows the Chinese preference for sons, and the family's connection with daughters is lost over time. Also with the Chinese belief that males are far more superior to women, it has become much easier for families to abort or purposely kill their female children. Men are able to effectively carry on the family name, take care of the parents once they become old, and bring about the highest savings rate for families. With these advantages of manhood, families have been utilizing the abilities of selective abortion to insure they give birth to a son, which causes the female to male ratio to steadily decline.

Many researchers also look to other cultural arguments to make claim that cultural contrasts, specifically in the area of sexism, between the East and West has led to an increase in the gender gap. These researchers believe that eastern civilization is far more sexist than the West. Although their belief seems to be valid, their explanation is obviously flawed due to the divergence of experiences between the two regions. For example, in Japan and other East and Southeast Asian countries, there have been exceptions shown to the deficits of women, similar to those countries in Europe and North America. Also, despite the fact that most of the areas in Southern Asia have some of the lowest ratios in the world, they have exposed themselves as pioneers of electing women as top political leaders. This is a direct representation that the analysis of the gender gap is far more complex than a simple aspect of sexism. These arguments have shown that the causes of the gender gap isn't necessarily caused by the differences between Eastern and Western values, but rather the actual gender preference present in the history of Chinese culture.

Many institutional arguments have also been made to attempt to explain the