Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Member of Faculty, Department of Geography
Abstract
employment and social situations equal with men, has gradually changed conditions in favor of women. Now women are demanding a larger share of the employment market, and they have achieved significant economic positions in, for example, the emerging electronic industries of newly industrialized Asian countries. While in China the sex ratio at the first birth is close to 1, but at next childbirths the proportion of male babies increases, the phenomenon which can be observed in South Korea and Taiwan as well.
New techniques for determining gender, an important issue in the Chinese society, include the use of the amniocentesis method in Korea and Taiwan and ultrasound waves in China. The result of the shortage of female babies will lead to the creation in these societies of the largest group of single men in the world unable to get married. According to the latest predictions, by 2020 the number of Chinese single men will be more than the total female population of Taiwan. In addition, an increase in the surplus of male population in China is likely to result, in some areas including Shanghai, in a sharp drop in fertility rates, even to levels under the substitution line.