Where Have All the Women Gone?

© Holger Leue/Corbis

When the topic of gender selection comes up, most people think of China first, and then maybe India, but rarely, if ever, of South Korea. Perhaps that's because it's no longer an issue there, as, in one generation, that country managed to turn the whole thing around. By last year, their gender ratio was back to normal. China and India, however, which together represent one-third of the human race, continue to value boys over girls, though there, too, the trend might be slowing. Still, a New York-based research organization calculated that, taking into account selective abortions, malnutrition, neglect, infanticide, and poor medical care, India is "missing" millions of women who could have been but weren't born or who didn't survive to adulthood. In 1990, according to the study, there were 88 million missing, in 2010, 126 million, and by 2035, it is projected to be 150 million (story, slideshow): http://www.wsj.com/articles/asia-struggles-for-a-solution-to-its-missing-women-problem-1448545813