It seems that the Vietnamese government is contemplating paying cash to families with daughters in an effort improve the ratio of births by gender. They believe that providing economic incentives to families will reduce the abortion rates of female fetuses.
I personally believe that while economic incentives can have a role in developing gender equality, this is not the way to do it. Instead provide equal opportunities to girls through scholarships, free primary school, provide job opportunities for girls, provide pension plans so that parents are not reliant on their children to provide for them, fund educational programs on gender equality, safe sex, and reproductive health.
Do not give money to families that have girls – that division and distinction plays into the belief that girls are worth less than boys, that the funding is a consolation prize for having a daughter. Work to develop a society that values the inputs of its daughters and women as more than wives and mothers; value women as equal contributing members of society because they are. Raise women to be more than just someone’s wife and value them for their work both inside and outside of the home; value them for their ideas, minds, and the potential that they have.
Work to create a society where each child is valued.
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