In Rural India, Society’s Preference For Sons Shapes Two Generations Of Women’s Mental Health

In One Part of India, a Baby’s Gender Can Shape Grandmother’s Anxiety and Mom’s Job Chances

In rural northern India, whether a woman’s first child is a boy or a girl can shape her mother-in-law’s mental health and, years later, her own chances of working outside the home. A new study tracking pairs of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law in one district of Uttar Pradesh documents just how far the pressure to produce a son reaches, touching two generations of women at once. The authors caution that findings may not generalize to settings where older women live independently or son preference is less pronounced.

India’s deeply entrenched preference for male children carries measurable consequences for women’s lives, and this study offers a sharper picture of who bears them and when.

At the center of this story is the mother-in-law, a figure who has long wielded quiet but significant authority over younger women in Indian households. The study, published in the Journal of Development Economics, found that when a daughter-in-law’s first child was a boy, her mother-in-law was noticeably less likely to show signs of anxiety or depression on the researchers’ screening test. When the firstborn was a girl, the older woman carried a heavier psychological burden, tied to cultural expectations about lineage and a son’s role in carrying on the family name.

1,572 Households in Uttar Pradesh Reveal a Pattern Tied to a Baby’s Sex

Researchers surveyed 1,572 pairs of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law living together in Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh, from November 2023 to May 2024, a rural area with firmly traditional gender norms.

To qualify, a daughter-in-law had to be 18 to 35, have given birth to at least one child, be neither pregnant nor sterilized, and be living with her mother-in-law. Surveyors interviewed each woman separately and privately with a four-question screening tool called the PHQ-4, asking how often in the past two weeks each had felt nervous, hopeless, or lost interest in things she normally enjoys.

A final analysis drew on 1,296 complete pairs, 95 percent Hindu, with about 90 percent belonging to a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, or Other Backward Class. Nearly half of households were poor. Mothers-in-law averaged 56 years old, daughters-in-law 26.

Wealthier families can use sex-selection technology to choose later children’s sex, which could skew results, so researchers focused instead on the firstborn’s sex, plausibly close to random in India even where sex selection occurs at later births.

A Grandson Cuts a Mother-in-Law’s Depression Risk by 15 Percent

Among mothers-in-law, 31 percent screened at risk for anxiety or depression, versus 18 percent of daughters-in-law. Those rates are higher than global estimates for anxiety disorders and depression, although researchers caution the measures aren’t directly comparable.

When a daughter-in-law’s firstborn was a boy, her mother-in-law’s risk dropped by about 5 percentage points, a 15 percent reduction, roughly comparable to the mental health effects of public pensions and inheritance law reforms in other Indian studies. The effect was strongest when daughters-in-law were under 25, since more childbearing years ahead means a longer stretch of uncertainty about whether a grandson will arrive.

For daughters-in-law, the picture was more complicated. On average, firstborn sex made no difference to their mental health, but daughters-in-law above 27 showed higher risk if they had no son. As a woman’s childbearing window narrows, a missing son shifts from a temporary situation to something that feels permanent, and the psychological cost climbs.

A Firstborn Son Opens the Door to Work for Young Wives

On average, daughters-in-law with a firstborn son were no more likely to be employed. But among those under 25, a firstborn son raised the odds of having worked in the past year by 15 percentage points, a substantial jump given that female labor force participation among younger women hovers around 24 percent.

Researchers describe the likely pathway as running through the mother-in-law, though they call this evidence suggestive rather than proven. When a grandson is born, mothers-in-law appear to spend more time on childcare, less time outside the home, and grow more approving of daughters-in-law working outside the house, about 12 percentage points more likely among younger daughters-in-law with firstborn sons. Only 42 percent of mothers-in-law approved of daughters-in-law working while children were young, versus 85 percent once children were older, a gap that shows how much sway the older woman holds over the household. Husbands played a limited role in reproductive decisions, partly because nearly half had been away from home for at least six months for work.

Employment gains for younger daughters-in-law came mainly from actually finding work rather than looking for it. They were more likely to work for family members or outside the home, though not more likely to earn wages directly, a shift less about new job access and more about finally having the time to take part in work already available.

Researchers say this points to something often missed in conversations about women’s economic participation in India: the gatekeeper isn’t always the husband. In these households, it’s often the mother-in-law shaping the schedule and the childcare, and programs aimed at boosting women’s workforce participation may be running into a wall not yet fully identified.

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Disclaimer: This article is based on findings from a single observational study conducted in one rural district of India. The results reflect associations identified through the study’s design and may not generalize to other regions, households where mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law do not live together, or settings with weaker son preference.

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