|
The phenomenon of the missing women of Asia is a shortfall in the number of women in Asia relative to the number that would be expected if there were no sex-selective abortion and female infanticide and if the newborn of both sexes received similar levels of health care and nutrition. The phenomenon was first noted by the Indian Nobel Prize–winning economist Amartya Sen in an essay in ''The New York Review of Books'' in 1990, and expanded upon in his subsequent academic work. Sen originally estimated that more than a hundred million women were "missing" (in the sense that their potential existence had been eliminated either through sex selective abortion, infanticide or inadequate nutrition during infancy). Originally some other economists, notably Emily Oster, questioned Sen's explanation, and argued that the shortfall was due to higher prevalence of the hepatitis B virus in Asia compared to Europe. Further research however, has established that the prevalence of hepatitis B cannot account for more than an insignificant fraction of the missing women.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 year=2008 )〕 As a result, Sen's explanation for the phenomenon is still the most accepted one. ==The problem== According to Sen, women allegedly make up the majority of the world's population, even though this is not the case throughout every country. While there are typically more women than men in European and North American countries (at around 0.98 men to 1 woman for most of them, in number of males for each female), the sex ratio of developing countries in Asia, as well as the Middle East, is much higher (in number of males for each female). This runs contrary to research that females tend to have better survival rates than males, given the same amount of nutritional and medical attention.〔 In China, the ratio of men to women is 1.06, far higher than most countries. Translating this into an actual number means that in China alone there are 50 million women "missing" - that should be there but are not. Adding up similar numbers from South and West Asia results in a number of "missing" women higher than 100 million.〔 According to Sen, "These numbers tell us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excess mortality of women."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Missing women of Asia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|