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Mara Hvistendahl

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Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men Hardcover – June 7, 2011

by Mara Hvistendahl (Author)

4.2 100 ratings

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Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2011
A Slate Best Book of 2011
A Discover Magazine Best Book of 2011

Lianyungang, a booming port city, has China's most extreme gender ratio for children under four: 163 boys for every 100 girls. These numbers don't seem terribly grim, but in ten years, the skewed sex ratio will pose a colossal challenge. By the time those children reach adulthood, their generation will have twenty-four million more men than women.

The prognosis for China's neighbors is no less bleak: Asia now has 163 million females "missing" from its population. Gender imbalance reaches far beyond Asia, affecting Georgia, Eastern Europe, and cities in the U.S. where there are significant immigrant populations. The world, therefore, is becoming increasingly male, and this mismatch is likely to create profound social upheaval.

Historically, eras in which there have been an excess of men have produced periods of violent conflict and instability. Mara Hvistendahl has written a stunning, impeccably-researched book that does not flinch from examining not only the consequences of the misbegotten policies of sex selection but Western complicity with them.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

PublicAffairs
Publication date

June 7, 2011
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1586488503
ISBN-13

978-1586488505
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Xinran, author of Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother and Sky Burial "This is a book about whole nations wounded by sexselection. Mara Hvistendahl...describes a history we would be wise to learn from."

From the Inside Flap

In 2007, the booming port city of Lianyungang achieved the dubious distinction of having the most extreme gender ratio for children under five in China: 163 boys for every 100 girls. The numbers may not matter much to the preschool set. But in twenty years the skewed sex ratio will pose a colossal challenge. When Lianyungang's children reach adulthood, their generation will have twenty-four million more men than women.   

The prognosis for China's neighbors is no less bleak: rampant sex selective abortion has left over 160 million females "missing" from Asia's population. And gender imbalance reaches far beyond South and East Asia, affecting the Caucasus countries, Eastern Europe, and even some groups in the United States -- a rate of diffusion so rapid that the leading expert on the topic compares it to an epidemic. As economic development spurs parents in developing countries to have fewer children and brings them access to sex determination technology, couples are making sure at least one of their children is a son. So many parents now select for boys that they have skewed the sex ratio at birth of the entire world.   

Sex selection did not arise on its own. Largely unknown until now is that the sex ratio imbalance is partly the work of a group of 1960s American activists and scientists who zealously backed the use of prenatal technologies in their haste to solve an earlier global problem.   

What does this mean for our future? The sex ratio imbalance has already led to a spike in sex trafficking and bride buying across Asia, and it may be linked to a recent rise in crime there as well. More far-reaching problems could be on the horizon: From ancient Rome to the American Wild West, historical excesses of men have yielded periods of violence and instability. Traveling to nine countries, Mara Hvistendahl has produced a stunning, impeccably researched book that examines not only the consequences of the misbegotten policies underlying sex selection but also the West's role in creating them.

From the Back Cover

Unnatural Selection is an important book and a fascinating read. Mara Hvistendahl is a delightful writer: witty, engaging, and acute. But the tale she tells is deeply disturbing. Asia alone is missing 160 million women and girls, a number equal to the entire female population of the United States. According to Hvistendahl, the culprit is less deeply rooted cultural gender bias than rising wealth, elite attitudes, and Western influence and technology. Development, at least for the coming decades, will produce not only fewer children overall, but also many fewer girls. The result is a future for many parts of the world, from India to China, Azerbaijan to Albania, where brides are much more likely to be bought, women are much more likely to be trafficked, and men are much more likely to be frustrated. For the present, we must confront the stark reality that the availability of ultrasound and ready abortion are sharply reducing the number of women in the world.
--Anne-Marie Slaughter, professor of politics and international affairs, Princeton

A fascinating and thoroughly researched book on a most important subject. The staggering population imbalances described by Hvistendahl should be of concern to all.
--Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide

Yes, it's a rigorous exploration of the world's 'missing women,' but it's more than that, too: an extraordinarily vivid look at the implications of the problem. Hvistendahl writes beautifully, with an eye for detail but also the big picture. She has a fierce intelligence but, more important, a fierce intellectual independence; she writes with a hard edge but no venom--rather, a cool and hard passion.
--Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics

About the Author

Mara Hvistendahl isa correspondent for Science magazine based in Shanghai and covering Asia. Her writing has appeared in Harper's, The New Republic, Scientific American, the Financial Times magazine, Popular Science, Foreign Policy, and the Los Angeles Times. She first lived in Asia over a decade ago, when her studies took her to Beijing. She has spent half of the years since then in China, a base from which she reported extensively from around the continent. Her first book, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, was selected as a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs; 1st edition (June 7, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1586488503
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1586488505
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,238,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #643 in Abortion & Birth Control
- #861 in Demography Studies
- #2,507 in Genetics (Books)

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Mara Hvistendahl

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Mara Hvistendahl is an investigative reporter with The Intercept. Her latest book, THE SCIENTIST AND THE SPY: A TRUE STORY OF CHINA, THE FBI, AND INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE, details a far-reaching FBI investigation involving a man accused of stealing genetically modified corn seed lines from Monsanto. Mara's 2011 book UNNATURAL SELECTION, on the global effects of prenatal sex selection, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A proficient Mandarin speaker and former National Fellow at New America, she lived in Shanghai for eight years, where she covered China's renaissance in science and technology as a correspondent for Science. Mara now lives in Minneapolis.

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Victoria Alexander

Review posted in my weekly column

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2012

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Book Review. "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men" by Mara Hvistendahl. This is an absolutely fascinating, well researched book. It has been impossible for me to stop reading it - I was even reading it on line at Costco.

There are 163 million females missing in Asia. Why and who is to blame?

In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that's as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events. If the male number in the sex ratio is above 106, it means that couples are having abortions when they find out the mother is carrying a girl.

Yet today in India there are 112 boys born for every 100 girls. In China, the number is 121 --though plenty of Chinese towns are over the 150 mark. China's and India's populations are mammoth enough that their outlying sex ratios have skewed the global average to a biologically impossible 107. But the imbalance is not only in Asia. Azerbaijan stands at 115, Georgia at 118 and Armenia at 120.
Hvistendahl puts the blame squarely on sex-selection abortion. In Asia, it was found that women will continue to get pregnant until they have a son. Herein is the problem: A male child is more valued than a female child. And, in China's one-child policy, couples want a son.

Women in the U.S. have a right to have an abortion. But what if abortion was forced on them? What if abortion is used as an alternative to having a female baby? Hvistendahl gives some horrific cases of forced abortions on women 7 and 8 months pregnant. Field workers in Asia got paid for every abortion they performed.

Hvistendahl's research shows that in the 1960s the Ford Foundation, the United Nations and Planned Parenthood zealously backed the use of cheap prenatal technologies (portable ultrasound equipment) that would indicate the sex of a fetus. This was reasoned to be the best way to stop over-population. It permits women to select to have a son. In many cases, the U.S. used foreign aid as a hammer to implement sex-selection policies.

It worked.

The world is becoming increasingly male. What will that mean in the near future?

Sex-selection abortions are the reason that 163 million girls are missing from the world.

It all started with Paul Ehrlich, author of the 1968 bestseller "The Population Bomb." He popularized the idea that ensuring that couples had sons was an effective means of curbing population growth.

What are the consequences? Hvistendahl lists "wife tourism", bride buying, prostitution, and other horrific practices. A world predominately male brings with it increased violence and social unrest.

Yet, how can the U.S. expect other countries to ban abortions when there is really no way to know if telling a woman the sex of her fetus means the woman will have an abortion? Women go to one doctor to find out the sex of their fetus and then, if they are carrying a female fetus, go to another doctor for an abortion.

Hvistendahl illustrates the problem in South Korea which has the fourth-lowest birthrate in the world, according to the United Nations.
South Korea will soon be a country primarily of old people. To combat this frightening problem, abortion is now illegal in South Korea except in specific cases. Take for example this: In 2009, Sungshin Women's University in Seoul organized an event aimed at trying to raise awareness about the country's very low birth rate. It sparked controversy when the organizers requested women students in the audience to submit a sworn statement that they would have children.

When I visited Ethiopia 2 years ago we traveled on roads built and being built by the Chinese government. The road building is extensive throughout the country. Our tour guide said that they set up camps for the workers who did not spend any time with the locals. There is absolutely no interest in mingling with the population. All their food was prepared for them. If anyone gets sick, the managers join the workers. Quotas were always met.

As the demand for wives grows, will the men of female-starved countries seek out women from other ethnic groups?

From my column, The Devil's Hammer for Feb. 6, 2012. The fantastic Australian Bee Gees Show at Excalibur, "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men", Apollo 16 astronauts found alien ship, remote viewers say, Happy Pizza, and more... [...]

10 people found this helpful

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Sanjay Agarwal

Asia's Unborn Daughters

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2011

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Mara Hvistendahl makes an interesting point. It is evident that easy availability of abortion clinics (Marie Stopes) and of ultra-sound diagnostic tests has helped make it easier for Indians to get rid of unborn daughters with less fuss and qualms than before. Secondly, the Government's vigorous promotion of a two-child family norm and its wide-spread social acceptance would tempt many into 'ensuring' they had a son while sticking to the two-child norm. Kishore Mahbubani (Can Asians Think?) has also pointed to the influence that Aid agencies and rich nations exercised over population control in Asian nations. This appears to be true - for India at least.

However, the preference for sons over daughters appears to an ancient one, and widely reflected in Hindu literature and mythology. King Pandu, in Mahabharat, asks only for sons and ends up with five. His elder brother, Dhritarashtra has 100 sons, and only one daughter. King Dashrath has four children in old age - all sons. King Sagar has 60,001 children - all male. Ultrasound technology probably means that what was once sought as a divine boon is now available over the counter, for a few thousand rupees.

The shortage of women in ancient India may also be corroborated by the practice of bride-price, which was later condemned as uncivilized behaviour, amounting to sale of daughters.

Secondly, mid-wives in India had a versatile tool-kit for killing off unwanted children (whether illegitimate sons or merely female). This indigenous technology certainly did not come from the West. However, it worked only when the child was born.

To counter this, the smritis (codes of conduct) recommended social ostracism for those who aborted a foetus. This stigma, possibly never very strong, appears to have been completely extinguished by the Government's vigorous, no-questions-asked promotion of abortions.

All in all, Ms. Hvistendahl argument is valid to the extent it helps us understand that it is not just local culture that is to blame for this ongoing silent genocide in Asia. Rich Western nations may also have some blood on their hands, when it comes to killing of the never-born.

15 people found this helpful

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David L. Danielson

Natural Albeit Unusual

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2011

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What is the result when combining the genes of journalism and literature? Answer: Mara Hvistendahl. Her first book, Unnatural Selection, is investigative journalism at its best introducing the reader to a world-wide problem with dire yet unimaginable consequences. The mined data than soars to the heights of literature as the reader accompanies the author on the back of a motor scooter into the Mekong Delta to visit with parents who have sold a daughter to be the wife of a stranger and maybe his brothers as well. The book is creating more than a stir as people come to grips with well intentioned but unforeseen consequences of the past. It is a book that won't be forgotten. Mara has emerged on the literary stage as an author whose further offerings are already eagerly awaited.

14 people found this helpful

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SoldierOn

A Good Read

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2013

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I am enjoying the book, but I've read so much on this topic that I find it really doesn't offer anything new. We keep reading about all the missing girls and how terrible it's going to be for China and India, but we continue to wait for the consequences. Yes, I believe they are going to be serious and severe (not just for these nations, but for the world who will have to put up with their instability). It's a book that says 1) Asia (mostly) messed up their gender birth ratio 2) they should stop or something bad is going to happen. Frankly, like other books on the topic, abortion is the issue and the primary killer of girls in the world. Feminists have insisted abortion is the most import fundamental right for women and then can't figure out what to do when our future women are being slaughtered before ever drawing breath (of course, they argue, governments just need to teach these poor illiterates to appreciate a girl child and all will be well..not working out is it?). A good read for someone relatively unaware of this issue.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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K

Für Deutschland wichtig, weil das Geschlechterverhältnis der Flüchtlinge die Situation für bestimmte Altersgruppen verändert

Reviewed in Germany on January 13, 2016

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Hervorragend geschriebene Analyse über ein Problem, das noch wenig thematisiert wird, uns alle aber betrifft oder sehr bald betreffen wird. Einziges Manko: Die Schrift ist so klein, dass es mühsam zu lesen ist.

Es ist ein abolut wichtiges Buch, für die Welt insgesamt und auch seit neuestem für Deutschland.

In Gesellschaften, in denen es einen deutlichen Männerüberschuss gibt, steigen Kriminalität und insbesondere Verbrechen gegen Frauen deutlich an. Dies ist zu beobachten z.B. in Indien.

In Schweden ist das Verhältnis Männer zu Frauen im Alter von 16-17 duch die Zuwanderung von insbesondere männlichen unbegleiteten Flüchtlingen bereits (Stand Ende 2015) auf 125 Jungen zu 100 Mädchen angestiegen. Das Resultat kann man im Internet nachlesen.

In Deutschland findet die Zuwanderung durch Flüchtlinge vor allem in jungen Altersklassen statt. Die deutsche Bevölkerung im Alter zwischen 20 und 30 beträgt ca. 10 Millionen. In dieser Altersklasse findet die meiste Zuwanderung statt und zwar mit einem ungesunden Geschlechterverhältnis. Die im Buch beschriebene Problematik trifft insofern auch auf Deutschland zu.
Das beschriebene Problem ist unabhängig von Kultur, Religion oder Herkunft der Menschen und ist in mehreren Kontinenten und sehr unterschiedlichen Gesellschaften zu beobachten.

Wenn man sich fragt, wie es möglich ist, mehr als 300 Seiten auf eine relativ einfach erscheinende Beobachtung zu verwenden, wird man überrascht sein, wie viele neue und teils überraschende Aspekte in dem Buch zu finden sind. Sehr spannende Lektüre für alle, die geopolitisch interessiert sind!

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Bibliophile 3

A fascinating and disturbing book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2011

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This is an excellent book which is made more powerful by the fact that the author did not start out with any anti-abortion or anti-planned parenthood agenda. The societal preference for male children has already skewed the population balance in many parts of the world. Acting on this preference by the use of selective termination, or by the more sophisticated techniques of embryo selection and sperm sorting, is being led by the educated middle classes and filtering down to all segments of the population. While many countries have enacted legislation prohibiting prenatal sex selection, particularly termination of the 'wrong' sex, this is rarely enforced. While 'backward' or 'misogynist' cultures are often blamed for these practices,the promotion of termination as a method of contraception in the developing world, the acceptance of sex-selection as the lesser of two evils ("better to let people have the sex of child they want so they don't go on reproducing") and the technology to make these practices possible were all pushed by western democracies. The author suggests that the outcome of sex selection resulting in populations containing an excess of young males who cannot find partners are societies that are violent, politically unstable and surprisingly misogynist. Where women are scarce, rather than being highly valued, they are more likely to be treated as commodities to be controlled, trafficed and abused. The sad thing is that the pitfalls of prenatal sex selection, and also of the preference for male children seem glaringly obvious. Aren't there any social scientists in China, for instance, who could see that where families only wanted male children, they were much less likely to ever become grandparents!

I'm making this book compulsory reading for my final year midwifery students. It's an important book that should be read by all healthcare professionals, social scientists and politicians the world over.

6 people found this helpful

topboyz5

recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2018

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Do you want a male child by all means necessary ?
read this book

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