MALE CHILD PREFERENCE: A SOCIO RELIGIOUS RESPONSE

ABSTRACT

This study examined the Socio-religious response to male child preference among the Benin people. The aim was ascertaining the reasons and factors that seem to encourage and sustain such practices. The research employed historical and survey research method. It includes oral interview and personal observation. Books, journals, published and unpublished articles 11 and internet sources were also consulted as part of secondary sources of information. The study discovers that there is significant relationship between the understanding of religion and preference for male child. The research also discovers that there is a significant relationship between culture and male child preference. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the cultural practices that oppress women or see women as subordinate such as the small inheritance rights given to women and the tradition that forbids women from bearing their fathers’ name after marrying should be abolished.