Male or female, am ok. When properly trained a male child will render same help a female child will render at that early stage. The same thing applies when both are grown up. If a female child well established at an adult stage, she will contribute reasonably in training her younger ones. The key thing is training & helping any available one to become well established.
For the second question, I will like to be the last born with a cooperative older ones. I said cooperative older ones because if the elderly ones are always quarrelling, having dispute & doing things differently, the last born will not really enjoy them