Fertility control seriously increased in most low and middle income countries during the recent half-century, making the role of parents’ preferences for children higher than it was before. Among these preferences, gender preferences deserve special attention. Parents’ desires to reach certain gender composition of children have various demographic consequences: in some countries they support fertility levels, whereas in others they result in dramatic disproportions of men and women in the population. At the same time, relative values of daughters and sons for parents give as a powerful “lens” through which gender asymmetries in the society can be observed. The preference to have more sons than daughters (or to have at least one son) is of special interest in this aspect, because it reflects patriarchal norms and values which are strongly present in many societies of the world. 

This doctoral dissertation in sociological demography concentrates on dynamics of preference for sons in those countries of Asia and Africa where this preference was known to be widely observed at least some decades ago. Under fertility decrease in these countries, gender preferences for children are expected to stronger shape reproductive behavior. At the same time, social changes going in these countries, like urbanization, growth of women’s educational levels and labor market participance, are associated with higher gender egalitarianism compared to “traditional” agrarian societies. Do parents depart from son preference to the preference for balanced gender composition in this context? The dissertation contributes to studying this issue, looking consecutively at three dimensions of gender preferences for children: gender composition ideals, desires to have one more child and actual fertility. 

The dissertation consists of three independent studies. Study I offers the first attempt to systematically compare role of men’s and women’s gender composition ideals about children for fertility in low and middle income countries. Analyzing data of Demographic and Health Surveys held in 45 countries between 2010 and 2021, it demonstrates that, in contrast to earlier results of some country-specific studies, women’s unmatched gender composition ideals have stronger impact upon plans to have one more child than unmatched ideals of their partners. Study II considers how women’s desires about the next child depend upon gender composition of children already born in nine countries where son preference dominates in actual fertility. It is shown that while desires to have one more child within a short time period are associated with having no son, the desire to stop fertility is most probable among women who have children of both sexes. However, as shown in Study III, the preference for balanced gender composition of children so far hardly penetrates from desires for the next child to actual fertility: in countries of Asia and North Africa where son preference is mainly observed in parity progressions, its effects become only stronger in transition to the third parity from the 1950s to the 1980s birth cohorts of women. 

The thesis contributes to knowledge on fertility change in low and middle income countries and can be helpful in elaborating policy measures against negative demographic consequences of “asymmtetric” gender preferences for children.