THE TRIVERS-WILLARD HYPOTHESIS

"In species with a long period of parental investement after birth of young, one might expect biases in parental behavior toward offspring of different sex, according to the parental condition; parents in better condition would be expected to show a bias toward male offspring."

Trivers, R.L., and Willard, D.E., 1973. Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of offspring. Science 179: 90-92.
Links:
Mother's Health Hypothesis
Testosterone Hypothesis
The Red Deer
Red Deer II
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ Trivers himself