If they could pick, 40% of the Americans would rather have a baby boy rather than a girl, a recent survey says. The results are similar to the ones obtained in 1941, despite the feminist movement in the last decades.

LiveScience reports that the results of a survey conducted by the Gallup polling agency reveals that almost half of the Americans would rather have a boy than a girl. 40% of them said they would pick the male gender for their baby, while only 28% said they would prefer a girl. The other 32% of the participants said they are not sure or they didn’t mind having any of the two.

The difference is not big from the same results obtained in 1941, when the Americans were asked the same question. 38% voted for a boy, 24% voted for a girl and the rest had no particular preference. One thing we may draw a conclusion about is that now they seem more decided regarding what gender they want their child to be: only 32% don’t care about the gender in 2011 in comparison to 38% in 1941.

Here are the details of the results:
• 49% of the men questioned said they would prefer a boy
• 22% of them said that they clearly want a girl
• 31% of women stated wanting a baby boy
• 32% of them said they would prefer a girl
• 54% of the participants who were younger than 30 years old prefer a boy
• only 27% of them said they would like to have a girl
• 44% of the participants with a higher education prefer boys
• 22% of the participants with a higher degree opt for girls

The gender preference is just an imaginative option as it is not known how many parents could really opt for their newborn’s gender. However, in the last years, the sex-selective abortions have led to a changing in the balance. Remember we were all talking about how women are in larger number than men? According to a China census in 2010, there are born 118 baby boys for every 100 girls. Now, with the tests that promise sex-revealing of the baby at only a few weeks old, the concern that raises is the trend will hit the western countries as well.