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Bryanna Shaver
Professor Makarosyan
English 144B
April 29, 2016
Gender Selection; Portrayals in Which Sex Selection Caused
Sex selection or otherwise known as gender selection is the attempt to control the sex of
the offspring to achieve a desired sex. It can be accomplished in several different ways, both
being before and after the embryo implantation, as well as childbirth. Gender selection is
something that happened more so back then, which happened not only, but mostly in China. Sex
selection is when infant boys were prioritized over girls because of the fact that they are able to
carry the families name on and also because of the variety of strengths they had/ have as they
got older. Many times if a family had a child that was a girl the child would become abandoned
or aborted because the parent were not allowed to have a girl. This is relevant in the world today,
not because we abort or abandon infants just because they are girls, but because many time girls/
women are overlooked because of boys/ mens strengths. Although gender selection is not so
popular in modern society, it still has relevance because it has caused woman and their strengths
to be overlooked, because society focuses on mens strengths instead. This type of behavior
should be put to a stop or we a will continue to discriminate woman in society today, which will
cause harmful gender gaps.
Gender selection for certain reasons such as, social should not be allowed because
of the harmful end product beneath such a strict population. China and other societies once had a
policy called the One Child Policy according to googles definition, One Child Policy is a
policy implemented by the Chinese government as a method of controlling the population. The

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one child policy was introduced in 1979 in response to an explosive population growth, and
mandated that couples from Chinas Han Majority could only have one child. Being that the
One Child Policy Or sex selection were some laws that the Chinese were required to follow,
assisted reproduction technologies were created which then gave parents the option of choosing
the gender of their child. The article Gender Selection In China: Its Meanings and Implications
by, Cecillia L W. Chan, Paul S.F. Yip, Ernest H.Y. Ng, P.C. Ho,Cecilia H. Y. Chan, and Jade S. K.
Au, the article explains the assisted reproduction technology, It is Not only a Medical procedure
but also a social orientation, which reveals much of the underlying preference towards gender.
This was especially useful to Chinese communities/ societies with the One Child Policy or the
Son preference in China. When the one child policy came around couples preferred to have a
male as a child so if they had a female, they would either abort or abandon the child, so that way
they were able to have another child while still obeying the One Child Policy. That is until the
assisted reproduction technology came along which helped with that, so instead of having to
abort or abandon the female infant, they would jus choose to have a boy. Today there are many
situations where a female is outvoted, which some examples will later be explained, but the scary
part is that they are not only being outvoted they are/ were being overlooked even before the
implantation of the embryo. Many chose or would probably today choose to not bring a female
into this world, which is scary because if they were to be brought into the world with so many
societies against them, it may lead to bullying, sexual assault, or even something as extreme as
murder.
Throughout all of this, many of the girls from China went missing. People should take
the steps needed to improve the shortage of girls compared to boys of any country in the world
today. In the article Shortage of Girls In China Today by Judith Bnaister, Banister speaks about

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the shortage of girls compared to boys in several countries, and the way daughters are lost.
Daughters are lost primarily through sex-selective abortion, secondly through excess female
infant mortality, and thirdly through neglect or mistreatment of girls up to age three, in cities as
well as rural areas. Daughters are becoming missing through abortion and abandonment, but
today they are becoming missing in a way that society is overlooking women.
Woman are being over looked because of gender selection today. The book No Name
Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston, speaks bout Kingstons Aunt getting pregnant and being
disowned by her family. Kingstons mother illustrates a part of gender dominance, you must not
tell anyone. ( Kingston 4) This was said to Kingston by her mother. Her mother explained to her
that her father once had a sister who committed suicide. She killed herself by jumping into the
families well. When she killed herself, the family went on with life as if she had never even
existed and then they never spoke of her again. This shows that especially in the Chinese culture
woman are overlooked. They disowned a woman for being pregnant but what if a man in the
family would have got another woman pregnant would they have disowned him? Probably not.
They would not have to because a man probably would not go to the extremes of killing himself,
being that they would not look down on him for getting another women pregnant just because he
is a male. A man is able to go out and live his life as he pleases where as a woman has to be
conservative and live by what the man or parents tell her she has to do, way she has to act, or the
way she has to live. A woman rarely gets the chance to make choices on her own, even though it
is her own life. Woman are being overlooked or in this case even disowned today, for the same
thing a man could have done or the same things a woman can do.
Not only are woman being overlooked, but something that comes with woman being over
looked with gender selection is that men are being prioritized. An article by the name, There

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Can Be Only One (Woman On the Ticket): Gender in Candidate Nominations by Valerie M
Hennings and R. Urbatsch, is an article in which speaks upon gender in candidate nominations.
The article explains, nominating a woman for the top positions reduces a partys likelihood of
nominating a woman for the second position by half or more. Otherwise saying, if a woman is
nominated for top position it reduces the chances of another woman holding the second position.
This keeps woman from being able to hold an established position of power. Higher positions
such as presidential elections have always been two men. Most of society probably wouldnt
even be able to explain why they feel this way, but our society is very afraid of the idea of a
woman holding a high position. Woman not being selected to hold such a position is not only
happening in our society, the Eastern does not even have any women leaders. Men are even
being prioritized in candidate nominations. If a men held the first positon it is likely another man
would be nominated to hold the second position as well. This example goes to show that men are
prioritized in many situations especially in the most major situations for many societies.
Gender selection has caused woman to not be able to hold a dominant role in a
relationship, because even before they are implanted in the uterus they are already unwanted and
controlled if they should come into this world or not just because the baby is a female. That
being said because females were being so overly controlled before implanted or before birth and
males werent, it cause males to hold dominance. They are usually not able to hold dominance
because of the different strengths between men and women. Men hold the dominance in a
relationship, and it is able to be seen all over the world today. In the book Shaman, also by
Maxine Hong Kingston, Kingston says, The woman who had arrived early did not offer to help
unpack, not wanting to interfere with the pleasure and the privacy of it. Not many woman got to
live out the daydream of women-to have a room, even a section of a room, that only gets messed

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up when she messes it up herself. Dominance in relationships since back then and even today is
not only a man being able to hold a high presidency position. Dominance can also be portrayed
at home. Which this quotes goes more into detail about. When Kingston speaks about a woman
rarely having a room let alone a section of a room to herself in which she makes a mess on her
own, meaning instead of her husband making the mess that she would have to clean, is an
example of dominance. Men seem to always have to be the ones who are in charge in a
relationship. If a woman does happen to hold dominance in a relationship or in modern day
otherwise know as the woman wearing the pants in the relationship. It is most of the time
looked down on, and talked horrible about. A lot of times instead of looking up to this woman as
society would to a guy for taking charge or lead in a relationship society will often just say that
the woman holding dominance is bossy. Many times even the parents of the women will hold
dominance when it comes to her own relationship with a supposed to be significant other, an
example of the parent being in charge would be arranged marriages. Which is when the parents
arrange who their daughter will marry in the near future. Rarely is it seen that a woman holds the
dominance when it comes to significant relationships, friendships, family, or even in her work
place.
The greater picture of sex selection/ gender selection is the relevance of it all today. The
relevance would be, the way woman are being treated in modern society, such as not being able
to hold dominant roles in many areas/ relationships in their life, having very little to no control
over the way they are going to spend the rest of their life, or who they are going to spend the rest
of their lives with. Another relevance today is the way men are being prioritized. We should care
about this issue because if this is what is happening right now in 2016, things seem as if they are
only able to get worse for the woman around the world in the near future.

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Works Cited
Banister, Judith. "Shortage of Girls in China Today." - Springer. N.p., 1 Nov. 2014. Web. 05 May 2016.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. Print.
"There Can Be Only One (Woman on the Ticket): Gender in Candidate Nomin." Ations. N.p., 18 Sept.
2014. Web. 05 May 2016.
Gender Selection In China: Its Meanings and Implivcations. Springer. NP. n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.