The Roll of the Dice: The gender gap If the baby is a girl, she will also be worse off than a boy born almost anywhere. She may receive less than her brother when food is scarce, and she will be less likely to start school. If she is put in school, she will have a greater chance than her brother of being taken out, either to save her family the cost of schooling or because she is needed to work at home. Like 2 million other girls each year, the 6 billionth child may suffer the pain and humiliation of genital mutilation. Or, as in some cultures, she will be brought up to believe that she does not belong at home but to the family of some as yet unknown husband. Married off in her early teens, she will probably be pregnant before her body is fully ready to carry a child, becoming a mother before she is a woman. The results can be devastating. More than half of all women in Africa and about a third in Latin America give birth in their teens, and they are twice as likely as adults to die in childbirth — and their children are more likely to be born underweight.
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