In Pakistan, parents disproportionately prefer having male children. In the rankings, Pakistan fared poorly, placed th, followed only by war-torn Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen. Women empowerment is a prerequisite for attaining political, social, economic, cultural, and environmental security among all peoples UN World Conference on Women.
Female empowerment is a broad term which encompasses the processes through which women gain greater control over the circumstances of their lives. The phenomenon of son preference is still widely practiced in the Pakistani society. In patriarchal societies, parents prefer having sons over daughters due to economic, social and cultural reasons. Sons are regarded as economic assets and old age insurance as the son stays with the household and significantly contributes to the household economy, continues the family legacy and provides the parents old age support and care.
Daughters, in contrast, are considered an economic burden. Parents must save for their dowry and daughters leave home to join their husbands β their financial and human capital thus becomes property of their marital household. A tragic consequence of this preference for boys is that women in such societies who bear sons enjoy higher say within households while those who do not succeed in bearing a son face social stigma and pressure at home, leading to domestic violence or divorce.
Who usually decides on visits to family or relatives? Who usually decides on large household purchases? In our study, we found that women with at least one son make more household decisions either alone or jointly with their husbands compared with women without a son.
Keeping other factors constant, the fact of women bearing one or more sons is associated with a 3. This improvement, however, does not necessarily represent a greater bargaining power as her voice in financial matters does not improve. Bearing sons does therefore not lead to significant economic empowerment.
