The idea that a son is the natural heir and continuation of the family name is gradually losing ground. In its place, a stronger desire for a daughter is emerging, visible both in parenting communities and on social media. The data, however, point to an important detail: the change does not mean that the majority now prefer girls, but that more and more people are no longer placing the child’s sex at the center of their expectations.
A Gallup International survey conducted between October 2024 and February 2025 among 44,783 people in 44 countries shows that 65% do not consider sex important if they can have only one child. 16% prefer a son, while 15% prefer a daughter. In the data cited in the report, the share of women who prefer a daughter is 19%, compared with 12% who prefer a son.
From Cultural Norm to Personal Expectation
For decades, surveys in the United States have recorded a stronger preference for boys. An analysis linked to Cornell University and published in 2018 suggested that this attitude may have reversed. Researchers noted that daughters may now be preferred, while some parents associate boys with more difficulties and risks.
This change can also be seen in the language of social media. Videos of parents sharing their disappointment after learning they are expecting a boy attract millions of views. For some women, the desire for a daughter is connected not only with raising a girl, but also with the hope of having a close relationship similar to the one they had with their own mother.
Stuart Brazel of Los Angeles already had two sons when she decided to try again in the hope of having a daughter. After learning that she was expecting a third boy, she experienced intense disappointment. „I just sobbed and sobbed,“ she recalled in an interview with the New York Post. Today, Brazel says that she loves her three sons, but continues to feel sadness over the unfulfilled expectation.
Disappointment Is Not Necessarily About the Child
Family therapist Julia P. Davis explains that the phenomenon known as „gender disappointment“ is often not a rejection of the baby itself. „It is about giving up the future you had imagined,“ she says. According to Heidi Murkoff, author of „What to Expect When You’re Expecting,“ disappointment often stems from expecting another child of the same sex - for example, a third boy or a fourth girl.
Murkoff also warns against generalizations that girls are better than boys. In her words, media messages about „toxic masculinity“ can create a negative image that does not describe all boys and men.
Against this backdrop, Nashville father Brett Green sees raising sons as an opportunity, not a threat. „I see raising a son as an opportunity to correct the course,“ he told the New York Post. For Brazel, the responsibility of raising good young men also remains important. In this way, the debate over the preferred sex of a child returns to the more fundamental question - not what kind of child parents imagine, but what kind of family they will be able to build around that child.
Sources: vesti.bg, nypost.com