Department of Sociology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Demography. 2022 Jun 1;59(3):1143-1171. doi: 10.1215/00703370-9968420.
Infant sex ratios that differ from the biological norm provide a measure of gender status inequality that is not susceptible to social desirability bias. Ratios may become less biased with educational expansion through reduced preference for male children. Alternatively, bias could increase with education through more access to sex-selective medical technologies. Using National Vital Statistics data on the population of live births in the United States for 1969-2018, we examine trends in infant sex ratios by parental race/ethnicity, education, and birth parity over five decades. We find son-biased infant sex ratios among Chinese and Asian Indian births that have persisted in recent years, and regressions suggest son-biased ratios among births to Filipino and Japanese mothers with less than a high school education. Infant sex ratios are more balanced at higher levels of maternal education, particularly when both parents are college educated. Results suggest greater equality of gender status with higher education in the United States.
婴儿性别比例与生物规律的差异提供了衡量性别地位不平等的指标，这种指标不受社会期望偏差的影响。通过教育的扩展，性别偏好降低，可能会使比例变得不那么有偏差。或者，随着更多获得性别选择医疗技术的机会，通过教育，偏差可能会增加。本研究利用 1969-2018 年美国人口出生动态国家统计数据，在过去五十年中，按父母种族/民族、教育程度和生育胎次，考察了婴儿性别比例的变化趋势。我们发现，近年来中国和印度出生的婴儿性别比例存在男孩偏好，回归分析表明，接受过高中以下教育的菲律宾和日本母亲所生婴儿性别比例也存在男孩偏好。母亲教育水平越高，婴儿性别比例越平衡，尤其是当父母双方都受过大学教育时。结果表明，在美国，更高的教育程度带来了更大的性别地位平等。
