On Tuesday at the Institute's Villa Barton, Professors Martina Viarengo and Jean-Louis Arcand, both development economists, gave a News Briefing presentation entitled Asia's Missing Women.

Large numbers of girls are aborted, killed or left to die

The United Nations estimates that there are 117 million missing women in Asia who are not born due to gender selective abortions or die from inequality of health care and nutrition. “This is the starkest manifestation of gender inequality”, said Professor Martina Viarengo, who is currently researching the subject.

Fast economic growth does not stem unbalanced gender ratios

In the presentation the professors cited research which demonstrates that in some areas of China and India, preference for male children increases as families get wealthier. While there is evidence that reducing poverty improves the welfare of women if there are increased opportunities in the labour market, research also shows that economic growth will not be enough to overcome discrimination in the home and in a number of domains, they said.

One country succeeded in combating the problem

South Korea was able to go from being one of the countries with the most unequal gender ratios to having a near normal ratio due to an increase in women’s employment, decrease in preference for sons as well as changes in socio-economic conditions and policy modifications, Professors Arcand and Viarengo pointed out.

More men than women results in more social problems

“Unequal gender ratios in Asia are a recipe for social disaster”, said Professor Jean-Louis Arcand. Some of the consequences could be sex trafficking, more crime and social unrest in addition to global economic imbalances due to higher savings among unmarried Asian men, but more research on the causal links needs to be carried out, he said.

As opportunities for women increase their outcomes improve

Professors Arcand and Viarengo concluded that female education and labour market participation as well as more research are key to moving toward solving the problem and that many generations will pass if countries wait for it to resolve without intervention.

Martina Viarengo is also Faculty Affiliate at the Institute's Programme on Gender and Global Change. Other representatives from the Programme attended the event and offered input from political science and anthropological/sociological perspectives to the discussion.