Selective neglect: Gender disparities in children’s healthcare utilization in rural China

This research studies whether children’s gender influences household adults’ perceptions of their illnesses and the pattern of seeking medical treatments for them, the aim of which is to understand to what extent minor girls (under 15) are discriminated against in Chinese rural households’ allocation of curative healthcare. Using the 2014 wave of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find that households in rural China do allocate more medical resources to boys than girls. Gender differences mainly exist in children’s hospitalization rates and medical expenditures. Girls are especially disadvantaged as they grow older. They also face an added problem of sibling rivalry that leads to sick girls being less likely to be taken to a hospital when they have siblings of the same gender. These results suggest that sick girls in rural China may not be able to receive sufficient curative healthcare due to son preference. This is not only a threat to girls’ well-being, but also a potential cause of the imbalanced sex-ratio of the Chinese population.