COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RURAL-URBAN DIFFERENTIALS IN SEX PREFERENCE
ABSTRACT
The practice of child-sex preference is still pervasive in Nigeria despite the significant campaign for the equality and desirability of both sexes of children, according to empirical evidence and reality. In Kaduna state, the study looked at differences in sex preferences between rural and urban areas. A random sample of 400 respondents, 200 each from the urban and rural areas, were used to administer the questionnaire. To gather data for the study, focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews were used. Both chi-square analysis and frequencies expressed as simple percentages were used to analyze the data that had been gathered. In both the state’s urban and rural areas, there was a sex preference. However, compared to urban respondents, the majority of rural respondents (57.5%) prefer more men and fewer women. metropolitan areas (46.0%). Additionally, preference for more men and fewer women in rural areas was higher among men respondents (61.3%) than among women respondents (51.9%). A significant difference between sex preferences in urban and rural areas was found by the chi-square test (p-value = 0.003). Additionally, the study demonstrates that preference for male children in both urban (52.5%) and rural (54.0%) settings was due primarily to maintaining family ancestry. It also showed that support for security and old age as factors in female preference was higher in rural areas (57.0%) than in urban areas (55.5%). The study also revealed that the absence of a preferred sex results in continued child development. This opinion was more prevalent among the male respondents compared to the female respondents, bearing in both urban and rural areas. According to the study, the majority of men who responded in both urban and rural areas agreed that the absence of a male child could lead to marriage instability, whereas the opposite was true in the absence of a female child. The most common form of instability that couples experience when their preferred sex is missing out on sexual experiences. The study therefore suggested that family education be carried out, particularly on sex equality and sensitivity. Additionally, the government’s social insurance program needs to be more effective, especially in rural areas, to help people abandon ing long-held cultural beliefs that are GENDER BIAS.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The population of the world is growing, It was estimated in the year 2000 that the
The world’s population was increasing by 78 million people annually at a rate of 1.4%, and in 2025 it was expected to reach over 8 billion people (UNFPA,1999). The increase in population is a result of the country’s persistently high fertility rate, and at the same time, infant and child mortality rates have declined significantly over the past few decades, primarily as a result of immunization programs and the development of antibiotics and other life-saving medications, as well as to some extent because of various public health initiatives and nutritional intake levels observed in some regions of the world (Kamla, 2007).
While the world’s developed nations have seen a decline in fertility and a demographic shift from an Fertility is only now starting to decline in developing nations, where the fertility rate is still above 5.2 children per woman, from an already low level of 2.8 children per woman in 1950-1955 to an extremely low level of 1.6 children per woman in 2005-2010. (UNFPA, 1999). As a result, May (2006) noted that despite a growing awareness and significant efforts on the part of African governments, the continent is a late adopter and the last in the world to start taking overpopulation seriously. However, the population growth is so fast and so rapid in many ways that they cannot simply cope with the rate at which it is growing. It is like a runner on a tread mill; although they are moving very quickly, the tread mill is moving even more quickly than they are. V