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Female selective abortion - beyond 'culture': family making and gender inequality in a globalising India

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 16:27 authored by Maya UnnithanMaya Unnithan
There is an emerging global discourse on female selective abortion (FSA) as several Asian countries witness an increasing imbalance in their sex ratios in favour of boys. While there is an attendant increase in demographic and social surveys on the issue, little is understood about FSA as either a desired or contested practice of family making in the contexts in which it is practiced. Drawing on the accounts of feminists, doctors and lower, middle-class Hindu and Muslim women and their families in Rajasthan, Northern India, the paper explores differing perceptions and attitudes to FSA in the region. Focusing on the agency of pregnant women who resort to FSA, the paper suggests that gender inequality and marriage anxieties shape especially lower-middle-class women's engagement with reproductive technologies, including those of sex selection. The paper also concludes that the decisions of both Hindu and Muslim lower-middle-class women to abort female babies is informed by their shared, pragmatic understanding of the economic realities of gender discrimination and of their social obligation as wives to reproduce a particular quality of patriarchal family.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Culture, Health and Sexuality

ISSN

1369-1058

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

2

Volume

12

Page range

153-166

Pages

14.0

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Notes

Special Issue: Quality of Offspring—The Impact of New Reproductive Technologies in Asia

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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