Thank heaven for little girls

Do adopting parents prefer girls? A Slate story presents statistics to prove that they do -- by a lot -- and suggests some reasons for it. Maybe girls are perceived to be less troubled than boys? More unfortunate and in need of care? Easier to raise? Or maybe it's just that wives are more likely to be the ones directing the adoption project in a family, and they dream of having a little girl? Maybe. It's hard for me to believe that these statistics are right-on, because most of the adoptive families I know have adopted one of each, and the ones that don't have a boy and a girl have one or more boys. Something I'd like to know from the statistics that the Slate story doesn't mention is how many of those families who adopted girls already had boys -- maybe it's not so much that mom only wants a girl, but that mom's got enough sons already and would like a little female company.