Preferences for the Sex of Offspring and Demographic Behavior in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Germany: an Examination of Evidence From Village Genealogies

Why weren't (many) European women ‘missing’?

“…In societies with strong levels of son preference, higher-parity births generally display gender distributions that are much higher than those for earlierborn siblings. 3 Yet this kind of finding for historic Europe is almost completely missing in older studies of the European past (Knodel & De Vos, 1980), a point confirmed by more recent comparisons between sample populations within the Eurasia project. The authors of these studies note that: "…in clear contrast to their East Asian counterparts, couples in these European communities did not practice postnatal child control, or at least that such a control was not influenced by the size and composition of their surviving offspring" (Derosas et al, 2010).…”

Suspicious deaths: household composition, infant neglect, and child care in nineteenth-century Venice

“…According to the "Trivers-Willard hypothesis," mammals tend to privilege the sex expected to have the greatest reproductive success, yielding the best net fitness gains (Trivers and Willard, 1973;Hrdy, 1987). Indeed, while Knodel and De Vos (1980) find no clear evidence of sex preference in childbearing behaviours in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Germany, Voland and colleagues (1997) show that differential infant mortality varied widely, ranging from extremely male-biased to extremely female-biased, both within and across populations. They attribute such variation to differential parental investment, in line with differences in competition for local resources and population growth: sons were preferred over daughters where opportunities for population increase were greater, while the contrary occurred in stationary populations.…”

Son Preference, Gender Discrimination, and Missing Girls in Rural Spain, 1750–1950

“…Less equal gender roles tend to arise from particular beliefs and values that expect women to be in charge of domestic tasks and therefore discourage their participation in the labor market (Boserup 1989; Alesina, Giuliano, and Nunn 2013; Giuliano 2015, 2018). Property and inheritance rules usually favored males who would then take over the family farm, provide parents with old‐age security, and ensure the continuity of the family name (Knodel and De Vos 1980). Moreover, although daughters could help with younger siblings and take care of their parents in old age (Sandström and Vikström 2015, 58; Lynch 2011, 258–260), strict dowry systems could make them a drain on family resources (Bhalotra, Chakravarty, and Gulesci 2018).…”