Here’s a follow-up to Tuesday’s post on "Confucianism without Women,"  a story in Salon.com (hat tip China Law Blog) about a World Bank report that shows a change in social norms in South Korea away from male birth preferences (the full report, a PDF file, "Why is Son Preference Declining in South Korea?" is here).  The Salon summary notes that the sex imbalance (i.e. more boys than girls) is beginning to correct in Korea and states:

The trend is all the more noteworthy because until relatively recently,
South Korea’s authoritarian government did its best to legislate
societal adherence to radically Confucian traditional values that
emphasized the primacy of the male lineage and the extreme necessity of
having sons to care for one’s ancestors, both living and dead. In the
view of the authors, Korea’s example offers promise for other Asian
countries, especially India and China, where "son preference" is also
rampant and social demographics have become highly skewed.

       It’s all about modernization – urbanization, social mobility and cultural change.  That old demographic transition is finally taking hold in Korea.

     I would just push back against one thing here: the idea that "Confucian values" can be strictly legislated and imposed by an authoritarian government.  That, of course, pushes against the very idea of "Confucian values," or at least those Confucian values that hold dear exemplary moral leadership and disdain coercive laws and punishments.  If you have to compel people to follow "Confucian values," you really aren’t all that Confucian.

     But, hey, beyond that quibble, this is good news:

The significance for India and China is that one can make the case that
Korea’s centuries-long history of social engineering elevated the
importance of the male lineage to the highest degree of any country in
Asia. Then came the military governments of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,
which attempted to explicitly legislate conformity to that tradition.
But modernization still
threw off the shackles. In China and India, in contrast, government
efforts, by and large, have long been focused on stressing the
importance of gender equity, so there may be less of a current to swim
against.

     Anything that helps overcome the oppression of male domination and allows for the flourishing of females is a good thing.  My daughter and her friends should be able to develop their talents and passions and joys as much as they can, without restriction on grounds of gender alone.  And so should their sisters in China and India.  As they all come into their own, all over the world, the cause of Confucian Humanity is certainly served.