Chapter 2 cover photo credits: Mark Henley / Panos Picture

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Stemming girls’ chronic poverty: Catalysing development change by building just social institutions

‘I had no right to eat breakfast. Instead I had to prepare the 

sandwiches for the children at school. I so wanted to devour them. 

But I had no choice. My aunt beat me, with shoes or other things. 

Sometimes she beat me very early in the morning. Once I revolted 

against this all. I did not want to go sell things on the street. I had not 

even had breakfast yet. She forced me to go anyway. I cried […] I was 

with a man, he did garbage disposal. He wanted sex but I refused. 

But I was too hungry, so in the end I gave in. I ate well that day. He 

gave me GNF500 or 1,000, I cannot remember. I was six or seven 

years old. I did not feel OK about it, I did it against my will’ (in Human 

Rights Watch, 2006). 

Psychosocial impacts 

The impacts of son bias on girls’ psychosocial well-being are 

not well researched, but fragmented findings suggest that this 

is an area of concern, and one that requires further analytical 

attention. First, evidence from a range of contexts emphasises 

that daughters face a much higher degree of control over 

their behaviour than boys. In Confucian cultures in East Asia, 

whereas boys are perceived to have intrinsic worth from birth, 

girls are seen as ‘blank slates,’ with their value depending 

on socialisation and tight restrictions on their behaviour 

(Rydstrom, 2003). Similarly, Reynolds (1991, in Vogler et al., 

2009) notes that, in Zimbabwe, for instance, there is much 

greater control of girls’ time use, especially after puberty, 

owing to concerns about controlling girls’ reproductive 

behaviour. A Population Council study in Pakistan found 

that parents not only allowed sons much greater mobility (see 

also Chapter 5 on Restricted Civil Liberties) but also accorded 

sons considerably greater decision-making freedom relating to 

work, education and marriage (Ul Haque, n.d.). 

In order to escape strict parental control, adolescent girls in 

Latin America often opt for early marriage and/or pregnancy, 

not only as a result of a desire to engage in sexual relationships 

but also as a means to leave the family home and especially 

fathers’ control (Pereznieto and Campos, 2010). 

‘I started to work because I did not want to stay at home as my father 

treated me badly […] no, it is not that they treated me badly, it is just 

that I don’t like to stay at home because he beats me, he tells me off, 

I can’t even have a rest. He is a carpenter you see and he asks us to 

do all kinds of things, I have to help him with sanding […] I don’t even 

have the time to do my homework’ (female child domestic worker, 14, 

Peru, in Vargas, 2010). 

However, such ‘choices’ often result in reduced opportunities 

for future development. Teenage mothers are often compelled 

to leave school without completing a basic education and are 

forced to acquire new responsibilities with which they are 

unfamiliar. 

‘Well, I was studying, I finished second year of secondary and I gave 

birth just after I finished. After a few months I started third year but 

I was unable to finish because it was very difficult to leave the baby 

with someone all the time. Back then the Estancias programme 

hadn’t yet started’ (single adolescent mother, Mexico, in Pereznieto 

and Campos, 2010).

 © Sven Torfinn / Panos Pictures (2009) 

Bangladesh, Tangail. 10 year old Argina works as a house girl for a family in Tangail.

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2 | Son bias

A second important psychosocial impact relates to girls’ general 

relegation to domestic work responsibilities. This gendered 

division of labour in favour of sons not only has negative 

implications for daughters’ human capital development and 

future income-generating potential (see above) but also, 

because of the too-often invisible and undervalued social 

construction of domestic work activities, may lead to girls’ 

lower levels of self-esteem and confidence (see Box 18). 

4.  Promising policy and programme initiatives 

In order to tackle son bias and the negative impacts it has on  

girls  and  their  vulnerability  to  development  deficits  and 

life-course poverty, a multipronged approach is required 

– one which addresses the complex mix of economic and 

socio-cultural factors underpinning intra-household gender 

discrimination.  Initiatives  designed  to  influence  legal 

frameworks, attitudes and behaviour directly relating to son 

bias  need  to  be  complemented  by  efforts  to  enhance  girls’ 

human capital development opportunities, to prevent and 

protect girls from abuse and exploitation and to reduce girls’ 

time poverty. In this section, we review promising policy 

and programme initiatives covering three of these four broad 

areas from a range of country contexts, in order to highlight 

initiatives that could contribute to altering norms and 

practices that perpetuate son bias and help stem life-course 

and intergenerational poverty transfers. Issues relating to 

prevention and protection of girls from abuse and exploitation 

are discussed in Chapter 4 on Physical Insecurity. 

Directly targeting son bias

As discussed in the previous section, son bias is not only 

the product of cultural and religious traditions. It is also a 

rational response to pervasive societal gender discrimination 

and exclusion, on the one hand, and underinvestment in 

social protection systems, which often leaves families solely 

responsible for their life-course security, on the other. In order 

to challenge intra-household inequalities, an important starting 

point is to ensure that legal frameworks are in place to prohibit 

sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. Legislation 

banning sex-selective abortions has been introduced in a 

number of countries (India in 1983, South Korea in 1987,

25

 

China in 1989, Nepal in 2002), but legislation is often only 

weakly enforced (see Box 19).

Legal action by itself, however, is not enough to eliminate 

harmful traditional practices. To be effective, legislation needs 

to be part of a broader integrated public education campaign 

that involves opinion makers and cultural leaders. Several 

promising approaches have been undertaken in China and 

India. India’s Save the Girl Campaign aims to lessen son 

preference by highlighting the achievements of young girls 

in India. The campaign was launched in 2005 on International 

Women’s Day and has involved a series of activities, including: 

working with anganwadis (public child care workers), women 

 

Children negotiate personal freedom in a number of ways, 

including through work refusal. This can constitute a powerful 

statement, given that involvement in work activities is highly 

valued in many cultures (Vogler et al., 2009). Nieuwenhuys 

(1994), in her study of children’s daily activities and routines 

in a village in Kerala, India, emphasises that, for the poor, 

gender and age are crucial in the household’s division of 

labour and are closely linked to the perceived value of a 

member’s contribution. ‘It is their being allotted tasks that 

are not valued in monetary terms that makes for children’s 

work, and in particular girls’, to be held in low esteem’ (ibid). 

Box 18: Links between the value of work and 

girls’ self-esteem

 

In India, enforcement of legislation outlawing sex pre-

selection technologies has proven challenging. In 1994, the 

Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques (Regulation and Prevention 

of Misuse) Act was passed, becoming operational in 1996. 

Although this ended advertising about pre-birth sex selection, 

the act was difficult to enforce, partly because of a lack of 

political will and limited engagement from the public and non-

governmental organisations (NGOs) (UNFPA, 2004). However, 

in 2000 health activists filed public interest litigation on the 

non-enforcement of the act in the Supreme Court, which led 

to the government issuing directives and incorporating the 

act into various public health programmes to try and improve 

enforcement. In 2002, the bill was amended to expand 

the definition of ‘prenatal diagnostic techniques’ to include 

preconception techniques, as well as the imposition of a fine 

of up to $2,000 and threat of the cancellation of licence for 

health care practitioners who divulged the sex of a foetus. 

By 2006, 300 doctors had been prosecuted in accordance 

with the law (Mudur, 2006); however, only 37 cases have 

been filed for communicating the sex of the foetus and 

27 for advertising sex selection. The first conviction with a 

prison term was ordered on 28 March 2006, when a doctor 

and his assistant were sentenced to two years in prison 

and a Rs 5,000 fine in Palwal, Haryana. Until this, only one 

case had resulted in successful prosecution, but even that 

person received an insignificant punishment.

26

 Similarly, a 

2008 report demonstrated that practitioners who are willing 

to disclose the sex of a foetus are still easily found, with 

the practice justified as a ‘social duty’ which prevents the 

ill-treatment of unwanted daughters (ActionAid and IDRC, 

2008).

Box 19: The challenges of legal enforcement 

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