On December 11, according to my doctors’ best guesstimate, I am due to give birth to a baby girl. My husband and I couldn’t be happier. Most parents, however? They’d rather have a boy.

By The Numbers 44%

the

increase in a U.S. woman’s paycheck from 1970 to 2007 6%

the salary increase for an

American man over the same time 2024

the year when the average American woman may

outearn the average American man 45%

Swedish government officials who are women 51.4%

American managers who are women (way up from a meager 26.1% in 1980) 33

countries that have had a female president. (But not, of course, the U.S.!) 51%

U.S. personal wealth held by women 83%

U.S. consumer purchases made by women $0.63

what a Wyoming woman gets for every dollar a man earns $0.84

what a woman gets in Vermont 5

average number of children for an American mother in the 1960s; it’s down to 2.5 now 21

average age of a first-time mom in 1970; it’s up to 25 now 87

life expectancy (in

years) of the average Japanese woman 8.5%

unemployment rate for U.S. women 9.5%

unemployment rate for U.S. men 74%

women on teams that created ads for this article 3%

female creative directors in the ad industry

It may not be surprising that there’s a lingering preference for baby boys over baby girls worldwide. What’s alarming, however, is that this

global inclination is manifesting more strongly than ever. Historically, when nature is allowed to determine sex all on its own, about 105 boys are

born for every 100 girls (and because women live longer, the ratio of people on the planet evens out over time, even tilting slightly toward

females). But the balance of nature has shifted in Asia, thanks to wider availability of affordable ultrasound equipment, which detects gender as

early as 15 weeks, and widespread abortion. In China, after 30-plus years of the country’s One Child Policy, the ratio of boys to girls is a highly

unnatural 120:100 (it’s even reached 150:100 in one province). In India, 109 boys are born for every 100 girls. Demographers calculate that roughly

160 million Asian females have gone what they euphemistically categorize as “missing.” There’s growing evidence that this pattern of sex selection

is being followed in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and similar trends seem likely in Africa and the Middle East.

A 2011 Gallup poll revealed that 54% of American men between the ages of 18 and 49 would prefer

a boy.

Lest we think this is some sort of second- and third-world predicament, it turns out boys are still No. 1 in the United States too. A 2011 Gallup

poll revealed that if American men between the ages of 18 and 49 could have only one child, 54% would want a boy; “no preference,” at 26%, beat out

girls, who rated a measly 19%. According to the same poll, women don’t have a preference; but since it takes two to tango, as the song goes, that

makes for heavy pressure in favor of “a masculine child,” as Luca Brasi so eloquently put it in The Godfather. These figures have remained

essentially unchanged for 70 years–the stats were the same in 1941. While it may be culturally taboo here to openly reject or abort a child based

on gender, fears of second-class status and doubts of a daughter’s potential value are remarkably persistent.

In India and China, the preference for sons is seen as pragmatic and economically sound, a choice often exercised by educated, upwardly mobile

parents, making this a form of “consumer eugenics” (a term coined by Mara Hvistendahl, the author of the 2011 book Unnatural Selection).

Cultures with such a pronounced boy bias tend to also have a tradition of “patrilocality,” where daughters go to live with their husbands’ families,

while sons stay at home and inherit property. In China, where one-child families have been official policy since 1979, the aging population has

resulted in the so-called 4-2-1 problem: four grandparents, two parents, and just one child. According to the old customs, that one child, the

economic mainstay, had better be a boy. The situation in India is similar. As one newspaper ad for sonograms put it: “Spend 500 rupees now or

500,000 rupees later”–on a dowry.

That consumer preference turns into disaster when repeated across a society. Unnatural Selection does a frightening, thorough job of

documenting the consequences for countries full of men: sex trafficking in Albania, mail-order brides in Vietnam, crime in “bachelor towns” in rural

China. The future portends aging populations short of nurses and teachers.

The preference for boys over girls turns into a disaster when repeated across a society.

Fact is, the desire and the data don’t match up. In the 21st century, there’s a compelling case for girls as the equal–and in some cases,

optimal–gender for roles in leadership, innovation, and economic growth. Women excel in education, the most crucial factor in tomorrow’s workforce;

we are 56% of undergraduates in the U.S. and approaching parity in China and India. Our socialization is geared toward the right stuff for the

changing requirements of success in the 21st century: Women are likely to have a more balanced, empathetic leadership style, better communication

skills, a knack for fostering innovation through collaboration. Consider the results of a recent study by psychologists at MIT and Carnegie Mellon,

who divided people into teams and asked them to complete intelligence tasks together. The IQ scores of the groups’ members barely affected

collective performance. The number of women on a team, however, affected it a lot–the more women, the better.

The evidence is mounting that baby girls are a strong investment. “An important future indicator for a developing economy is its treatment of

women,” says Sheryl WuDunn, coauthor with husband Nicholas Kristof of Half the Sky, a best seller turned PBS series turned online game that

dubs girl power “the best way to fight poverty and extremism.” A country that gives girls equal opportunity has twice as much talent and brainpower

to draw on and is likely to be more open and flexible in ways that promote international trade. World Bank numbers also show that development

dollars invested in projects that target girls and women show a 90% return; the figure for projects focused on men and boys hovers between 30% and

40%. The Grameen Bank, the best-known microfinancier, makes 97% of its loans to women, whose repayment rates are much higher.