Having a child of your own is considered one of the best things that can happen to a woman. But in some parts of the world, just a child is not enough. Rather at least one son is preferred, if not more. Countries in East and Southeast Asia, like China and India, have centuries old beliefs that an ideal family needs a son, and from these beliefs developed practices of infanticide or gendercide, the killing of female children. However, these beliefs did not necessarily originate in Asia but were in fact prevalent in Ancient Greece and Rome as long ago as 200 BC. There were six thousand families living in one city of Greece and only one percent of them had more than one daughter. Centuries later, demographic data from India shows that during the British rule, there were about six boys for every girl and in some villages there were not any girls at all.
While most people in the modern world believe infanticide and son preference is a non-issue because it has declined, the fact remains that these issues are actually on the rise due to advances in technology, the economy, and a preference for small families which in turn leads to preferring a son over a daughter. Statistical data shows that the number of girls killed in infanticide is more than the number of men killed in all of the wars of the twentieth century (Manne, 2010). That number is staggering and astronomical enough to prove to naysayers that infanticide is in fact an issue that needs to be solved because it has consequences on the overall dynamics of family, society, and a country and not only effects the present but also the future. It is first necessary to understand the factors that cause infanticide and son preference to be so prevalent in Eastern cultures. Preferring a son to a daughter is mostly due to economic, cultural, social, and religious factors. Sons are considered more valuable because they