Population Reference Bureau Policy Seminar Series

Topic: "Shortage of Girls in China: Causes, Consequences, International Comparisons, and Solutions"

Speaker: Judith Bannister, Javelin Investments

Place: PRB, 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 520, Washington, DC (Universal North Building at Connecticut and T Streets; Dupont Circle Metro station, north exit). Please bring your lunch. Coffee, juice, and soft drinks will be provided.

Time: Thursday, April 24, 2003
12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m.

China has the most severe shortage of girls compared to boys of any country in the world today. The new census shows there are 20 percent more boys than girls at ages 0 to 4 in the whole country, and seven provinces totaling 387 million people have 28 percent to 36 percent more boys than girls at ages 0 to 4. The serious shortage of girls in China has gotten worse during the last two decades, and the problem is real, not merely undercounting of girls.

Dr. Banister will analyze the causes of these losses of daughters in China today. She will describe how female fetuses, babies, and young girls are selectively aborted or die prematurely, and what leads families to dispose of some daughters in these ways. Dr. Banister will lay out the consequences of these actions for China and the world, and compare the China "missing girl" situation with that in other countries, in particular East Asian, South Asian, Muslim, and other developing countries. She will lead a discussion of how China and other countries might go about solving this abnormal shortage of girls.

Judith Banister is a well-known demographer specializing in the People's Republic of China and other Asian countries. She works for Javelin Investments in Beijing as a senior consultant, and is an honorary professor at the Social Science Research Centre, Hong Kong University. She was a professor of demography at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology during 1997-2001. Before that, she conducted international demographic research at the U.S. Bureau of the Census for 17 years, and directed the 90-employee International Programs Center of the Census Bureau during 1992-1997.