déséquilibre entretenu des naissances

English translation: sustained imbalance

08:39 Sep 23, 2009

French to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.

French term or phrase: déséquilibre entretenu des naissances

Hi

This is about India, specifically aspects of Indian society that can be an obstacle to the country's development:

Déséquilibre entretenu des naissances hommes/femmes

I've read before that infanticide and abortion of girls is (was?) practiced in China and am inclined to think this is the suggestion here. On this basis I have "Gender imbalance maintained at birth" which sounds a little clumsy.

Would anyone have a brighter idea?

Many thanks!

Sandra Petch KudoZ activity Questions: 576 (none open) (86 closed without grading) Answers: 558
Local time: 22:20

English translation:sustained imbalance

Explanation:
this is equally ambiguous

Selected response from:

polyglot45

Grading comment

"Sustained gender imbalance in the birth rate"

Thanks very much everyone for your help!
2 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +3

sustained imbalance

polyglot45

deliberately skewed sex ratio at birth

Jocelyne S

Discussion entries: 7

polyglot45

Well it is ambiguous

11:00 Sep 23, 2009

which is why I went after a word equally ambiguous in E. "Sustained" can mean "with outside help"....

Jocelyne S

France

Slight ambiguity

10:58 Sep 23, 2009

Thanks, Melissa. It's the "entretenu" that I found ambiguous and which got me onto "deliberately" (and made me change my initial response). In a document about obstacles to development, presumably this "imbalance" is not seen as something "natural".

Melissa McMahon

Australia

Maybe "in the birth rate" for "naissances"?

10:48 Sep 23, 2009

That's how I understand the reference.
(PS Jocelyne I wasn't especially targeting you in my remark... afterwards I had to ask myself whether there was something more in the "entretenu" here, but I don't think so - as you say, it just means "consistently")

Jocelyne S

France

Naissances

10:47 Sep 23, 2009

I do think that it's quite important to keep 'naissances' as the imbalance occurs at birth (and indeed not in early childhood or later in life). This is presumably what is going to be examined (i.e. why are less girls born?) and is a hot issue unto itself.

Sandra Petch

ASKER

10:41 Sep 23, 2009

Hi - I think Melissa sums this up perfectly in her title. I do prefer Polyglot"s "sustained" to my "maintained" while keeping "gender imbalance" - Jocelyne is right though that "sex ratio" is an often-used term. How important do you think the reference to "naissances" is?

Jocelyne S

France

You could be right, Melissa

10:34 Sep 23, 2009

I had initially answered (and then hidden) "consistenly uneven sex ratio at birth", which is perhaps less contentious. You could be right that I got carried away with the "deliberately skewed". It may also depend on the tone of what follows.

Melissa McMahon

Australia

Descriptive fact vs. controversial allusion

10:23 Sep 23, 2009

All the phrase says, as per polyglot, is that there is a sustained - ie. maintained over time - gender imbalance in births. I don't think it's appropriate to translate the phrase in a way that writes/reads in a possible cause of the imbalance, esp. given it is such a contentious one.

Answers

5 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

sustained imbalance

Explanation:
this is equally ambiguous

polyglot45
Native speaker of:

English,

French
PRO pts in category: 22

Grading comment

"Sustained gender imbalance in the birth rate"

Thanks very much everyone for your help!

28 mins confidence:

deliberately skewed sex ratio at birth

Explanation:
I believe that we use the term "sex ratio" when talking about the ratio of males to females. When referring to birth rates, it's "sex ratio at birth".

Here you could talk about the "deliberately skewed sex ratio at birth".

Best,
Jocelyne

Saga of India's missing daughters
- [ Traduire cette page ]
It takes a closer look at the skewed sex ratio in the five districts of Kangra ... conscious to more deliberate strategies where family planning strategies ...
southasia.oneworld.net/.../saga-of-india-s-missing-daughters - Il y a 2 heures - Pages similaires

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Note added at 31 mins (2009-09-23 09:10:50 GMT)
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Or "consistently skewed sex ratio at birth"

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Note added at 1 hr (2009-09-23 10:36:50 GMT)
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Following Melissa's comment above, I'm going to re-suggest my initial comment, which I hid.

It was:
"consistently uneven sex ratio at birth"

Jocelyne S
France
Local time: 22:20
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 47

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English translation: sustained imbalance

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English translation: sustained imbalance

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