When It Comes to Having Children, Americans Still Prefer Boys

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Despite the significant advances women have made over the past century, and the modern emphasis on equality between the sexes, Americans today still harbor a preference for having male rather than female children, just as they did over a half century ago. In a new Gallup survey conducted December 2-4, 42% of Americans say they would prefer a boy if they could have only one child, while 27% say they would prefer a girl. One-quarter of Americans say it would not matter to them either way. This preference for boys has strengthened slightly in the three years since Gallup last asked this question. In 1997, 36% of Americans said they would rather have a boy, compared with 23% who would prefer a girl and 38% who said it did not matter.

For over 60 years, more Americans have expressed a preference for having boys. In 1941, Gallup asked Americans, both with and without children, if they could have only one child (or one more, if they already had children), would they prefer a boy or a girl? Thirty-eight percent said they would prefer to have a boy, compared with 24% who said they would choose a girl and 23% who said they did not have a preference. Forty-nine years later, in 1990, more Americans said they would prefer a boy (38%), but the number who desired a girl had increased substantially -- 34% said they would rather have a girl.

Suppose you could only have one child. Would you prefer that it be a boy or a girl?

 

		Boy	Girl	EITHER/ DOESN'T MATTER (vol.)	Not sure	No opinion
		%	%	%	%	%
2000 Dec 2-4		42	27	25	4	2
1997 May 6-7		36	23	38	2	1
1997 Feb 24-26 ^		41	29	25	--	5
1996 Feb 23-25 ^ 1990 April 19-22 *		41 38	31 34	25 24	-- --	3 4
1941 Mar 21-26 †		38	24	23	--	15
^	If you were to have a child right now, would you rather have a boy or a girl?
†*	If you could have only one (one more) child, which would you prefer to have -- a boy, or a girl? If you had another child, would you rather have a boy or a girl?
(vol.) Volunteered response

Men Tend to Want Sons
The public's preference for boys is driven largely by the desire among men to have sons. A majority of men (55%) say they would prefer to have a boy if they could have only one child; 18% of men would prefer a girl and 21% have no preference. Women, on the other hand, are just as likely to prefer girls as they are to prefer boys -- 32% of women say they would prefer a boy, compared with 35% who say they would prefer a girl and 28% who say it does not matter to them either way.

Life Experience Reduces Preference for Male or Female Children
Although one might expect older Americans to be more "patriarchal" than society as a whole, young adults are actually more likely than older people to prefer boys. Fifty-five percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 say they would prefer a boy, compared to just 31% of those aged 65 and older. Young people are also theleastlikely to volunteer that they do not have a preference either way -- 14% of 18- to 29-year-olds say the gender of the child would not matter to them, compared to almost 30% of those aged 50 and older.

Are Boys Easier to Raise?
For at least 50 years, there has been a perception among Americans that boys are relatively easy to raise. Every time Gallup has asked Americans whether boys or girls are easier to raise, they are much more likely to say "boys." This percentage reached an all-time high in the most recent survey -- 53% of Americans say boys are easier to raise, compared to 28% who say girls and 14% who volunteer that there is no difference.

Which do you, yourself, think is easier to raise -- a boy or a girl?

 

	Boy	Girl	NO DIFFERENCE (vol.)	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2000 Dec 2-4	53	28	14	5
1997 Feb 24-26	49	30	14	7
1996 Feb 23-25	51	29	12	8
1990 Apr 19-20	43	27	23	7
1947 Sep 12-17	42	24	24	10
(vol.) Volunteered response

Sixty-four percent of men say that boys are easier to raise than girls, compared to 43% of women. On the other hand, women do not share the perception of men that raising a child of one's own gender is easier -- only 34% of women say that raising a girl is easier than raising a boy.

• 64% of those 18-29 years old say boys are easier to raise, compared to 45% of those aged 50 and older.

• There are almost no differences in opinion on this question between married people and unmarried people or between those who have children and those who do not.

The fact that men express such a strong preference for sons could be a function of some instinctive, genetic bias or a cultural pattern passed down through generations, but these data suggest it may simply be utility. This perception -- that boys are easier to raise than girls -- is strongly related to people's gender preference in children: 63% of those who say a boy is easier to raise also say they would prefer to have a boy. The pattern is the same for those who say a girl is easier to raise -- 58% of these people would prefer a girl. For the minority of people who do not see a difference in the ease of raising boys or girls, 64% say they would have no preference if they had to choose between a boy and a girl.

Preference for a Boy or a Girl, by Perceptions of Which Gender Is Easier to Raise

Boy Easier to raise		53%
Prefer boy	63%
Prefer girl	23%
Girl easier to raise		28%
Prefer boy	16%
Prefer girl	58%
No difference		14%
No opinion		5%
TOTAL		100%

Survey Methods

The results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,026 adults, 18 years and older, conducted December 2-4, 2000. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.