Killed, aborted or neglected, at least 100m girls have disappeared—and the number is rising

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15606229&source=most_commented

When will people finally understand that having a son is not better than having a daughter? One of the comments I read below this article was quite sour: Women fought for their rights to choose and now they choose not to give birth to women! 

It´s a sad sad thing, that´s imprinted in people´s brains for generations, across cultures. How many people have said "I hope you will have many sons!" as a good wish at a wedding over the years...

I´m think people should be taught to respect life again. I´m not anti-abortion, but I do hold a respect for life. Abortion is not something you do because you don´t like the shape of your baby. So many people have problems with getting children. They would not give a damn about having a girl or a boy, as long as it´s a healthy child. To just throw away a kid, just because of the gender.... what a long way humanity still has to go.

We´ve seen what consequences it bears to manipulate with genders in China. The country has a huge shortage of females. I don´t understand why people would like to have sons rather than daughters. When I was pregnant I was hoping for a girl! Not that I am dissatisfied with having a boy, though!

So this article talks only about China and India, basically the underdeveloped world where women have little human rights, are seen as a lower class and therefore girls are unwanted. It is a humanitarian disaster of course. An Indian person once told me that the reason people don´t want girls in India is that when the girl gets married her family is supposed to pay a huge dowry.. not sure if that´s the only reason though. Clearly, boys/men are very privilaged in these societies and people want their children to live a better rather then worse life.. Unfortunately, women´s rights is something very new, even in the West where there´s still a long way to go, and I´m afraid that humans will annihilate themselves before we reach full equality across the globe.

Will never ever understand this thinking.  As a woman who has both a son and a daughter, I have never felt any partiality toward one or the other.  They are both part of me and I consider it a privilage to be their parent.  I am just sick over things like this and it makes me feel so lucky for me and my children to live where we live.  It is truly a blessing! 

Lis, but that´s the difference - if you have a child because of wanting to fulfil a social obligation or consider it an investment, you will tend to treat it not like a privilege but a business option.