More than 2 decades of economic reforms have brought great improvements in the quality of life for women
and girls in China. Despite these improvements, in some areas, cultural values and norms concerning gender
roles and traditional family structures still influence the values attached to sons and daughters and create
strong incentives for son preference (Croll 2000; Li and Lavely 2003). The most striking evidence of the
priority parents place on sons is demographic: the "missing girls" phenomenon of abnormally masculine sex
ratios at birth. This phenomenon has become more extreme in the economic reform period (Banister 2004).