PARIS, June 23 -- While for centuries it was more socially desirable to give birth to a boy, this "tradition" is losing ground, or even reversing. This paradigm shift can be explained by recent advances in the fight for gender equality, but also (and paradoxically) by certain gender cliches that are still very much alive.

In a society still very much centred around the male/female binary, an individual's gender identity remains paramount in people's minds, even before birth. Indeed, since the widespread use of ultrasound scans in the 1980s, parents have been able to find out from as early as the second trimester (and sometimes earlier) whether they are expecting a girl or a boy. According to research by The French National Institute for ...