ARE THERE SEX PREFERENCES IN BRAZIL?

Coutinho, Raquel Zanatta

doi:10.1590/3410110/2019

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Artigo Original • Rev. bras. Ci. Soc. 34 (101) • 2019 • https://doi.org/10.1590/3410110/2019 copy

ARE THERE SEX PREFERENCES IN BRAZIL?

EXISTEM PREFERÊNCIAS DE SEXO NO BRASIL?

EST-CE QU’IL EXISTE DES PRÉFÉRENCES DE SEXE AU BRÉSIL ?

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Society ascribes roles and expectations for people based on their sex. When the costs and benefits of each sex are different, people may have different motivations for having sons or daughters because children of different sexes are not substitutable. Sex preferences may then increase fertility, as women and couples who pursue a certain sex composition may progress to additional births. To understand how the social structure has been shaping sex preferences and fertility ideals, it is important to identify the characteristics of women with different preferences. Using responses to questions about an ideal number of children and their sex composition available in the Brazilian Demographic Health Survey of 1996 and 2006, this paper provides evidence that a balanced sex preference exists among most Brazilians; some evidence of a secondary daughter preference is also found. Evidence also shows that “gender indifference” has become more pronounced as fertility declines.

Sex preference; Fertility ideal; Sex composition; Sex selection

	Family size
	1	2	3	4	Other
Sex composition	b	bg	bgg	bggg	bbggg
	g	bb	bbg	bbgg	bbbgg
	x	gg	bbb	bbbg	bgggg
		xx	ggg	bbbb	bbgggg
		gx	bxx	gggg	bbbbg
		bx	ggx	xxxx	bgxxxx
			gxx	bgxx	bbbggg
			bbx	gxxx	bbbbgg
			bxx		bbbbggg
			bgx		bbbbgggg

1996
Categories in the multinomial logistic models		n	%		n	%		N	%		n	%
	One child			Two children			Three children			More than three children
Balance				bg	2,001	47	bgg	223	5.3	Same amount and some indifferent	1	0.0
							bbg	187	4.4	bgxx	1	0.0
							bgx	7	0.2	bbgg	151	3.6
										Same amount, none indifferent	23	0.5
Indifference	x	168	4.0	xx	385	9	xxx	146	3.5	xxxx	16	0.4
Indifference										Indifferent more than others	14	0.3
Daughter	g	240	5.7	gg	64	2	ggg	9	0.2	More women than men or indifferent	23	0.5
							gxx	1	0.0	bggg	7	0.2
										gggg	2	0.1
										gxxx	1	0.0
Son	b	171	4.1	bb	56	1	bbb	13	0.3	More men than women or indifferent	15	0.4
				bx	1	0	bxx	1	0.0	bbbg	2	0.1
										bbbb	6	0.1
Total		579			2,507			587			262
2006
Categories in the multinomial logistic models		N	%		n	%		N	%		n	%
Balance	One child			Two children			Three children			More than three children
				bg	1,927	40.9	bgg	179	3.8	Same amount and some indifferent	1	0.0
							bbg	127	2.7	bgxx	1	0.0
							bgx	7	0.2	bbgg	75	1.6
										Same amount, none indifferent	6	0.1
Indifference	x	365	7.74	xx	672	14.3	xxx	229	4.9	xxxx	31	0.7
Indifference										Indifferent more than others	14	0.3
Daughter	g	290	6.15	gg	61	1.3	ggg	8	0.2	More women than men or indifferent	16	0.3
Daughter				gx	1	0.0	gxx	2	0.0	bggg	1	0.0
Son	b	176	3.73	bb	42	0.9	bbb	7	0.2	More men than women or indifferent	14	0.3
Son				bx	2	0.0	bxx	2	0.0	bbbg	7	0.2
Total		831			2,705			561			166

		Women without children
		1996	2006
		DSR	DSR
TOTAL		98	94
Race	White	99	95
Race	Black	98	94
Religion	Catholic	98	94
	Protestant	101	96
	Non-Religious	97	96
Urbanicity	Urban	98	94
Urbanicity	Rural	99	95
Region	North	97	99
	Northeast	97	89
	Southeast	99	96
	South	105	94
	Center-West	100	95
Education Level	None	99	89
	Elementary	97	93
	Some high school or middle school	101	94
	High school graduates	100	97
	College	94	94
Wealth Index (quintile)	1	98	85
	2	98	93
	3	100	98
	4	97	93
	5	98	96
TOTAL		98	94
Church attendance	No	96	91
Church attendance	Yes	99	95
Virginity Status	No	98	96
Virginity Status	Yes	99	93
Work Status	No	98	96
Work Status	Yes	99	92
Marital Status	Married	99	94
	Separated/Divorced	96	90
	Single	99	95
Age	15-19	97	95
	20-29	100	94
	30-39	96	99
	40-49	100	85

		2006				1996
		Balance (versus indifference)	Daughter (versus indifference)	Son (versus indifference)	Daughter (versus son)	Balance (versus indifference)	Daughter (versus indifference)	Son (versus indifference)	Daughter (versus son)
		RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR
Region ^(Southeast)	North	1.60 ***	0.86	1.08	0.80	3.65 ***	3.23 ***	2.02 *	1.60
	Northeast	1.71 ***	1.41 +	1.19	1.18	1.68 ***	1.52 *	1.04	1.47 +
	South	1.14	0.88	0.92	0.96	0.88	0.53 *	0.72	0.74
	Center-West	1.67 ***	1.00	0.94	1.06	0.76 +	0.50 *	0.42 **	1.21
Religion ^{(Non-Religious)}	Catholic	0.74	0.86	1.24	0.69	1.12	1.87	0.90	2.08
Religion ^{(Non-Religious)}	Protestant	1.01	1.44	1.92	0.75	1.45	2.22	1.51	1.46
Race ^(White)	Black	1.30 **	1.71 ***	1.82 ***	0.93	0.93	1.20	1.01	1.19
Rural		0.93	0.57 **	0.51 **	1.12	0.83	0.75	0.80	0.94
Years of Education ^(continuous)		1.01	0.82 **	0.88 +	0.94	0.94	0.84 *	0.87 +	0.98
Wealth Index ^(continuous)		1.00	1.00	1.03	0.97	0.92 +	0.95	0.87 +	1.08
Attends church		1.02	0.52 ***	0.64 *	0.83	1.00	0.82	0.71 +	1.15
Works		0.94	1.17	0.87	1.36 +	1.02	1.00	1.06	0.94
Marital Status ^(married)	Separated/Divorced	1.30	2.41 **	2.88 **	0.84	2.62 *	3.72 **	4.85 **	0.77
Marital Status ^(married)	Single	1.18 +	1.06	1.33	0.80	1.68 **	3.18 ***	2.70 ***	1.18
Age ^(continuous)		0.91 ***	1.01	0.97	1.04	0.97 ***	1.00	0.99	1.00
Virgin		0.90	1.28	0.84	1.53 *	0.88	0.48 ***	0.60 **	0.81
_cons		2.22 *	0.86	0.42	2.05	6.07 ***	0.31 +	0.76	0.40

		2006			1996
		One daughter (versus indifferent)	One son (versus indifferent)	One daughter (versus one son)	One daughter (versus indifferent)	One son (versus indifferent)	One daughter (versus one son)
		RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR
Region ^(Southeast)	North	0.99	1.27	1.01	3.28 **	2.16 +	1.52
	Northeast	1.44	1.17	1.19	2.35 **	1.38	1.71 *
	South	0.79	0.93	1.33	0.63	0.48 +	1.30
	Center-West	1.00	0.79	1.02	0.90	0.21*	4.28 *
Religion ^{(Non-Religious)}	Catholic	1.30	2.00	0.77	1.74	0.85	2.05
Religion ^{(Non-Religious)}	Protestant	2.06	2.50	0.53	1.60	1.09	1.46
Race ^(White)	Black	1.42 +	1.92 **	1.52	1.56 +	1.12	1.39
Rural		0.57 *	0.46 **	0.96	0.95	0.98	0.97
Years of Education ^(continuous)		0.94	1.05	1.01	0.88	0.90	0.97
Wealth Index ^(continuous)		0.98	0.96	0.83	1.00	0.93	1.08
Attends church		0.70 +	0.83	0.75	1.28	0.78	1.65 +
Works		1.22	0.82	1.30	1.12	1.04	1.08
Marital Status ^(married)	Separated/Divorced	1.37	1.84	1.07	1.83	3.46	0.53
Marital Status ^(married)	Single	0.79	0.94	0.75	2.15 *	1.83	1.17
Age ^(continuous)		0.87 *	0.83 **	1.01	0.88	0.88	1.00
Virgin		1.60 *	0.89	1.06	0.58 +	0.69	0.84
_cons		2.31	1.27	2.62	0.57	2.29	0.25

		2006				1996
		Balance (versus indifference)	Two daughters (versus indifference)	Two sons (versus indifference)	Two daughters (versus two sons)	Balance (versus indifference)	Two daughters (versus indifference)	Two sons (versus indifference)	Two daughters (versus two sons)
		RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR	RRR
Region ^(Southeast)	North	1.49 *	1.04	0.62	1.67	4.55 ***	1.28	0.00	10.00
	Northeast	1.73***	1.40	1.31	1.07	1.48 *	0.99	1.08	0.91
	South	1.10	1.43	0.70	2.04	0.95	0.39	1.39	0.28 +
	Center-West	1.74 ***	1.41	1.01	1.40	0.67 *	0.26 *	1.34	0.19 *
Religion ^{(Non-Religious)}	Catholic	0.39 *	0.26	0.99	0.00	1.15	0.97	0.84	1.16
Religion ^{(Non-Religious)}	Protestant	0.52	0.36	0.99	0.00	1.70	1.51	1.50	1.00
Race ^(White)	Black	1.45 ***	1.95 *	1.26	1.55	0.92	1.02	1.24	0.83
Rural		0.90	0.63	0.52	1.22	0.92	0.89	1.26	0.70
Years of Education ^(continuous)		0.95	0.88	0.97	0.91	0.86 *	0.90	0.86	1.04
Wealth Index ^(continuous)		1.05	0.88	1.28	0.68	0.90 +	0.96	0.87	1.11
Attends church		0.99	0.64	0.56	1.14	0.87	0.46 *	0.60	0.76
Work		0.93	1.57	1.01	1.56	0.93	0.93	1.35	0.68

Marital Status ^(married)	Separated/Divorced	1.53	6.23 **	2.87	2.17	3.40 *	11.09 *	6.31	1.76
Marital Status ^(married)	Single	1.23 +	1.77	1.11	1.60	2.04 ***	6.49 **	6.63 **	0.98
Age ^(continuous)		0.95	0.94	0.96	0.97	0.90 *	1.04	1.01	1.03
Virgin		0.90	0.99	0.98	1.01	0.80	0.71	0.69	1.03
_cons		5.37 **	0.55	0.00	10	7.73 ***	0.11	0.05 *	2.14

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