According to the new study conducted by Dutch researchers comes to unearth a surprising and fascinating link between the status of the expectant mother and whether she will have a boy or a girl, the Daily Mail reports. Findings say rich women or those in a position of power are more likely to have baby boys, as opposed to those who rank lower on the social scale.

“According to evolutionary theory, when conditions are good, and babies are likely to be healthy, a mother’s best chance of passing on her genes to another generation is to have boys. Fit, healthy boys will see off rivals and can potentially father hundreds of children, ensuring the survival of the family line. But if a mother is unfit or malnourished, a baby boy is a poor investment. A weak, sickly male is unlikely to beat off competition from other males and may not become a father or even survive. In these circumstances it makes more evolutionary sense to have a girl who does not face competition to become pregnant to continue the family line.” the Mail writes, based on the findings of the recent study.

At the end of the study, researchers were able to determine that women from the lower ranks had mostly girls, whereas higher-ranking wives gave birth mostly to boys. “Higher-ranking wives tend to have more influence, and income, than lower ranking ones. And the more wives a man has, the less food and money there is to share. As expected, lower ranking wives produced more daughters on average than the higher ranking wives or the women in monogamous marriages, the researchers report in the journal Biology Letters.” the Mail explains.

MORE RELATED ARTICLES: