1. Social and Cultural within ChinaChina has developed into a patriarchal society, on page 445 patriarchy is defined as a group in which men as a group dominate women as a group; authority rests with males. China has over four thousand years of culture and history, being one of the oldest societies in the world. With China's population growing out of control, China has taken drastic measures to gain control over the amount of people born in China. With approximately four billion people living in the world, one in five of the total population resides in China. Food and medicine began to run out and something had to be done. Laws were put in place that families could only have one child, and if the laws were broken, families faced hefty fines. This has become the largest demographic strain in history and could be the cause of China's devastation in the near future. Immediately, boys became the preferred gender over girls, and families would take drastic measures if they had a girl first. But why is male preferred to female? Because the males carry on the family name and work to help pay the bills and never leave, but instead stay to support the family. Females would be given away, sold, abandoned or, even worse, killed, to avoid being fined for having two children. This is why most adoptions from China are of girls. Every little girl has a story, abandoned in a park or left at the market, each one has a tragic start to life. And with only 100,000 girls a year monitored, what is happening to the rest of the children? Are they sold, given away? Maybe the answer is sweatshops or human trafficking. None of the children have social workers, so their stories are questionable. It could be... middle of paper... gender, but maybe it's because the family can't afford the baby, or they're just not ready for a baby. In America women have children more often without thinking about it because they are not regulated, but in China the pressure is strong because women have to have a boy on the first try otherwise they risk fines or have to give up their girl child. It is not uncommon to see American families with five or more children, but in China they did not have the opportunity to expand their family. Perhaps American families take as granite the natural right to decide how big to grow their family, but most children are still sacred and raised in families based on love. In China, boys are placed before girls and raised still believing that male children are the priority. There is no doubt that the cultural beliefs in China compared to those in America are different, but the beliefs in China were forced and not chosen.//374//