Girls were considered an expense to their birth families, since they only became valuable when they married and bore sons for their new families. Female infanticide has been a problem throughout Chinese history, as was, until the last century, the practice of foot-binding, which rendered generations of Chinese women crippled and semi-mobile for the sake of what amounted to a fetish of Chinese fashion.
when a mother would give birth to a daughter and they would end that infants life because it was a girl seems so cruel. Part of me wonders if families would do this in fear of what would become of their daughters and their daughters future, but also, I feel as if families, especially women were shamed if they gave birth to girls. The women I'm sure felt so much shame not birthing males. And the mothers who did choose to keep their daughters, the things they did to hopefully ensure that their daughters were not a shame to their families is a lot. If only it wasn't all men that ruled the Chinese society, then maybe women would have a little value to the Chinese society.