The missing boys: Understanding the unbalanced sex ratio in South Africa, 1894–2011

IF 0.9 Q1 HISTORY
Francisco J. Marco-Gracia, J. Fourie
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引用次数: 3

Abstract

ABSTRACT At the beginning of the twentieth century in South Africa, the sex ratio for black children under five years was one of the lowest ever recorded. Sex ratios also differed markedly by racial group. Those for white children remained almost invariable, with more boys than girls, while black children had a clear majority of girls, a situation that the literature has almost completely overlooked. The reasons are still not completely clear. Although sex ratios at birth show more births of boys than girls, boys’ mortality was higher than girls’ mortality. Why boys’ mortality was so high and why, as a consequence, the twentieth-century under-five sex ratio for black children was so skewed towards girls, a ratio much lower, for example, than the sex ratios of pre-industrial European countries, remains unanswered. We suggest several possible explanations. The most likely explanation, we argue, was a preference for girls.
失踪的男孩:了解1894-2011年南非性别比例失衡
在二十世纪初的南非,五岁以下黑人儿童的性别比例是有记录以来最低的。不同种族的性别比例也存在显著差异。白人孩子的情况几乎保持不变,男孩多于女孩,而黑人孩子的女孩明显占多数,这一情况几乎完全被文献所忽视。原因尚不完全清楚。虽然出生性别比显示男婴多于女婴,但男婴的死亡率高于女婴。为什么男孩的死亡率如此之高,以及为什么20世纪五岁以下黑人儿童的性别比例如此倾向于女孩,例如,这一比例远低于工业化前欧洲国家的性别比例,这些问题仍然没有答案。我们提出了几种可能的解释。我们认为,最可能的解释是对女孩的偏爱。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
11
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