In India, when a baby is expected in a family, most of the times people prefer to have a boy to girl. when one analyze the reason for this preference, we find that the reasons are many. One of the reasons for such a disparity is the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great deal of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship. Also ours is a patrilineal society. Patrilineal systems depend on the principle of passing on property and status from father to legitimate son. Hence people prefer to have a son. Then there is this Indian marriage where a girl has to leave her parents once she is married. It is the obligation of a son to take care of parents and not for a daughter. So if parents don't have a son, then their old age will be difficult. So there are many reasons for having a son than a daughter.
What is more disturbing is that the mother is blamed if a child of preference is not born. I had come across a news in "The Hindu" that a woman, not yet 20, Pazhaniamma, was charged with throwing her baby girl into a well. She had been taunted and abused for not producing a heir to the family; the only way she could satisfy family and social norms was to destroy the `non-heir' that she had produced. That could be one of the worst things to happen for a woman who has no control over the sex of the child she delivers.
One thing what i would like to add here is that the miseries of woman are always because of another woman. It is only women who blame another woman if the she doesnt deliver a male child. Anyways you notice all these only in rural India and this has reduced to a large extent in Urban India. Infact these days urban Indians prefer to have girl babies as they have now given up the thought that the boys will take care of them in their old age ;). Also they have realized that these days woman control a man more than the other way around with the powerful weapon in the world called "tears" (croc tears may be)!! :D
When we understand how the sex of a child is determined, then no one would blame a woman for that. For this we need to have a little understanding of science. Genes are the basic unit of genetic information, composed of sequences of DNA. Genes determine the nature of every cell in the body and how it will function. Humans have some 100,000 genes. These gense are arranged in specific locations and in a specific order along 46 chromosomes, rod shaped portions of DNA, that are organized in 23 pairs of two chromosomes. In each of the 23 pairs, one is provided by the mother and the other by father at the time of fertilization. Through a cell replication process called mitosis, all the eventual cells of the body contains the same 46 chromosomes provided by the maternal and paternal gametes(sex cells). Each chromosome is similar to the other member of its pair with one exception - the 23rd chromosome which is the one that determines the sex of the child. In females the 23rd pair consists of two matching relatively large X-shaped chromosomes, appropriately identified as XX. In males on the other hand, the members of the pair are dissimilar. One consists of an X-shaped chromosome, but the other is a small Y shaped chromosome. This pair is identified as XY.
Because the production of gametes involves the receipt of only half of the chromosome pairs in each parent, the ovum from female will receive one of the two X chromosomes from the 23rd pair. However because the male contributes either an X or Y chromosome, the sperm will contain either an X or Y from the 23rd pair.
The ultimate result of this process is that when an ovum and a sperm meet at the time of fertilization, the ovum is sure to carry and X chromosome, but the sperm will carry either an X or Y chromosome. If the sperm contributes an X chromosome the child will have an XX pairing on the 23rd chromosome and will be a female. However if the sperm contributes a Y chromosome, the result will be an XY pairing and the child will be a male.
It is clear from this process that it is the father's sperm that determines the sex of the child. Now don't blame a woman if she delivers a girl instead of boy as she has no control over the sex of her new born.
