Gender Differences in Children's Nutrition and Access to Health Care in Pakistan

This article analyses gender differences in children's nutrition and access to health care in Pakistan with a view to uncovering parents motives for the favouring of sons in South Asia. It is found that, among 0 to 5-year-old children, boys are favoured in the allocation of health care. However, girls appear as nourished as or better nourished than boys. This is taken to be evidence that intra-household gender discrimination has primary origins not in parental preference for boys but in differential returns to parents from investment in boys and girls.