Question

In our society the women are often blamed for giving birth to daughters. Can you explain why this is not correct?

Women are often blamed for producing female children. Consequently, they are ill-treated and ostracized. How will you address this issue scientifically if you were to conduct an awareness programme to highlight the values involved?

Answer 1

Blaming women in our society for having girls is incorrect because the father determines the sex of the baby, not the mother. As we all know, the human female chromosome pattern is XX, while the male is XY. As a result, all haploid gametes produced by the female (ova) have the sex chromosome X, whereas male gametes (sperms) can have either X or Y; therefore, 50% of sperms carry the X chromosome, and the other 50% have the Y. Following the fusing of the male and female gametes, the zygote would bear either XX or XY depending on whether the sperm carrying X or Y fertilized the ovum. The zygote bearing XX would produce a female baby, while XY would produce a male. As a result, the baby’s sex is determined by male sperm rather than female ova.