People can trot out the 'daughters are no closer to their parents when they are grown than sons are' line as much as they like. But they're kidding themselves. In most cases sons will not remain closer than daughters. The fact is that in EVERY FAMILY I have ever known, the daughters are closer to the parents when they get older.
It's always the daughters who are the caregivers, and who looks after elderly parents if they need help, and the daughters always stay within striking distance of their parents. Maybe not so much when they are young (like under 25,) but as they grow older and have a family of their own, they stay closer, they contact the parents/family more, and they make a lot more effort with their parents.
Most grown sons don't give a fuck. Indeed, it is almost ALWAYS the sons wives who make the effort, buy gifts for the in-laws, arrange visits and so on. I know a bunch of women who have sons AND daughters, and in every single case, the sons don't give a shit, and it's the daughters and daughter-in-laws making the effort.
An elderly lady lives near me (87,) and she has 2 daughters and FIVE sons. The 2 daughters (both in their late 50s who have young adult children and grandchildren, and also a JOB,) are the ones who tend to her needs, running her around when she needs it, doing her shopping, paying her bills, and visiting her 3 or 4 times a week ...
The sons - all five of them in their 50s and early 60s, do FUCK ALL. And 2 of them don't even work! A couple of the daughter-in-laws make more effort with the elderly lady than her own bloody sons do.
I am not saying a person should have a daughter to run around after them when they're old, but you cannot deny the fact that it's almost ALWAYS the daughters who do stuff for the parents when they are older. Very rarely the sons. Indeed, the five sons of this particular elderly lady rarely visit. I see them there maybe once or twice a month, and that is usually to borrow something!
I also know a few women whose sons (in their 20s and 30s) have moved abroad, with no intention of ever coming back. 3 of them have a son who met a woman from another country (at uni or at work,) and they have moved to the woman's country of origin.
Yet all the daughters of the women I know have stayed in this country, and mostly within 30-50 miles of their parents. They have travelled, and lived abroad for short spells, but always come back and settled within an hour or two's drive from their parents... (usually by the age of 25/26.) Some of them live even closer - like 5-6 miles away.
Also, I know a bunch of women with (adult) daughters, and they are waaaaaay closer to them than the women I know with sons, are to their sons... They meet them for lunch, they go shopping with them, they go for meals, they go to the cinema, they go away on weekend trips with them, and they are like friends. I don't know any adult son who does this with their mother.
I know this is purely anecdotal, but it's very common for daughters to be closer to the parents than sons!! I know some women are happy to have sons, but you cannot change the fact that many women want a daughter. And when there IS gender disappointment, it is ALWAYS when it's not a girl. (In western cultures at least.) I have seen women on their 2nd or 3rd son, become severely depressed and angry and upset when it was ANOTHER BOY.
Never have I ever seen a women disappointed at having a daughter.
Also, never have I ever seen women with daughters make spiteful, vitriolic, demeaning, vile comments about boys. Which is more than can be said about some mothers of boys, who are fucking horrible about girls. And there a bunch of you on here! Shame on you. You will be relaying this hate and vitriol to your sons. God HELP any future girlfriend or wife of your sons... They will have a rough ride with your sons after the hate and poison you must be dripping into their brains about girls. 
As was said earlier, I don't know if it's a defence mechanism, and the fact they are sick of being told 'aaw what a shame you don't have a daughter you must be disappointed,' or whether they deeply in denial, or whether they had a horrible relationship with their own mother, and are terrified of the same thing happening with them and any daughter they may have, but the hatred and vitriol towards girls on here is disgusting. As I said, shame on you.
As for this 'straw poll' .. it's nonsense. You can't base the feelings and desires of millions and millions of women on a couple of 1000 'votes' on a straw poll on mumsnet!' What's more, these kind of things are open to abuse (people using more than one account to vote etc...)