The Effects of Gender Roles on Chinese Natal Policies

Under the new policy, Chinese citizens are still required to apply for permits in order to have children, and the specter of enforcement of a two-child rule raises many of the same human rights concerns that animated opponents of the one-child policy. And while a two-child policy may decrease the imbalance in the sex ratio, this policy change could lead to more baby girls without a concomitant shift in the cultural norms that privilege boys. As economist Amartya Sen noted decades ago while documenting the 100 million missing women worldwide, bias against female children is not unique to China. Witness, for example, the skewed sex ratios in India or the Caucasus region that intensified, even in the absence of restrictions on family size, due to the low status society placed on birthing

Most females are not respected and are heavily pressured by their parents. Many Chinese women are expected to be in arranged marriages and are not respected in their family or the work-place. Woman that aren’t even born yet suffer from infanticide. If the parents came to find that they were having a girl from ultrasound- they would abort that child and try for a boy causing pre-birth ultrasounds to be banned. “Negative social consequences, particularly sex discrimination. With boys being viewed as culturally preferable, the practice of female infanticide was resumed in some areas shortly after the one-child policy took effect.” (Document E) “I hate to say it but the one-child policy should party be blamed for some social issues in youth today.” “She wished she has a brother or sister to share all the attention.” (Document F) This evidence supports the claim that the one-child policy was a bad policy because women have always been culturally no preferable, causing unborn females to be aborted.

China’s one-child policy made it illegal for most Chinese couples to have more than one child. It was the culmination of the government’s long struggle to control population growth. The policy was enforced mainly through financial incentives and punishments, but in rural areas brutal enforcement techniques like non-consensual sterilization and abortion were sometimes used. While the policy did reduce the population, it also caused problems such as an unbalanced male-female sex ratio and “4:2:1 families.” The one-child policy shows that women in Communist China remained in a position of social and political inferiority.

China’s one-child policy has interesting origins. Although,” China’s fertility rate began to fall in the 1960’s, there was no national policy aiming for a population of smaller families until 1971. In 1979, “Wan Xi Shao”, a program that encouraged later marriage, longer birth intervals between births and fewer children is what evolved to the well-known “one-child policy”.”(Gilbert, 24) Under the one-child policy, couples are given incentives to have a single child. Couples who pledge to have a single child receive monthly allowances for child support until the child reaches the age of fourteen. “Along with the money received monthly, they are promised more spacious housing and higher pensions for retirement”(Gilbert, 24). However, for

In 1979, China decided to establish a one child policy which states that couples are only allowed to have one child, unless they meet certain exceptions[1].In order to understand what social impacts the one child policy has created in China it important to evaluate the history of this law. China’s decision to implement a Child policy has caused possible corruption, an abuse of women’s rights, has led to high rates of female feticide, has created a gender ratio problem for China, and has led to specific problems associated with both the elderly and younger generation. Finally, an assessment of why China’s one child policy is important to the United States allows for a full evaluation of the policy.

China’s one-child policy was implemented in 1979 by Deng Xiaoping to limit China’s population growth, under the belief that overpopulation would inhibit its economic growth (History of the One-Child Policy). The policy restricted couples to only have one child, unless they were of an ethnic minority (Pong, 168). It was later amended in 2002 to include allowing two only-child parents to have two children, and allowed rural families to have another child if the first was a daughter (China’s One-Child Policy). On October 25, 2015, the Chinese government repealed the one-child policy in favor of a two-child policy because of the massive gender imbalance that it had caused (Taylor). Principally led by the much reviled establishment of the one-child policy, China’s abundance of males compared to females dramatically altered the demographics of the country, leaving millions of men unable to have a family, damaging the traditional cultural aspect of the Chinese family (Brooks). The disproportion originated from a traditionally boy-favoring Chinese culture and the future economic support a boy promised, while widespread use of ultrasound technology caused a decrease in births of girls (Brooks). Although successful in its goals of limiting population growth, the one-child policy, because of the Chinese cultural and economic support boys provided, had the unintended consequence of creating a gender imbalance, resulting in

After the one child policy institute, “infant girls have become more likely to die than boys because more families killing their daughters” (Parkinson). Because the firstborn male child is meaningful in Chinese traditional culture, particularly in rural areas even today, as sons can inherit the family name and property from elders. Due to losing of girls. China became the most gender-imbalanced country. According to the report, “The sex ratio at birth (between male and female births) in mainland China reached 117:100 and remained steady between 2000 and 2013, substantially higher than the natural baseline, which ranges between 103:100 and 107:100”(Chen). The sex imbalance will cause a lot of Chinese men hard to find a wife, especially in remote rural

For years, the One-Child Policy were unevenly and unfairly challenged the female’s reproductive right. During the One-Child Policy, with the limitation for only one child, in some cases, women feel that their reproductive organs are owned by the country, as they no longer have sovereignty over their bodies (Jaffery). Under the One-Child Policy, the Chinese government implement many methods to regulate fertility, including forced abortions on women who become pregnant with a second child, sterilization to prevent accidental pregnancies and the threat of heavy fine and unemployment. Some of the methods make women think they have no choice on how many babies they want and their fertility are remain under the control of the government. According

China’s official policy concerning the size of the family by its mere existence is a viola-tion of basic human rights an human reproductive rights that been reaffirmed throughout human history and is becoming an international norm. Furthermore, it is unlikely that China’s official policy regarding family size will go away; more than likely the current policy will be replaced by another of similar content.

In the 1970’s china had the largest population growth rate of any country at 3%. The one child policy was introduced to slow the country’s growth, which is succeeded in doing, but it had negative impacts on the country as a whole. Firstly according to our book “Under the one-child policy, families that had more than one child were penalized financially, and educational opportunities and housing privileges were kept from families who broke the one-child mandate.” (72). what that means is parents who had more than one child were fined, and their children were not afforded the same right to education as children form one child families. The next problem is because China traditionally favors males over females, there were huge numbers of female

Critics of the Policy have even noted its negative social consequences, particularly sex discrimination. The occurrence of sex discriminating abortions – the practice of female infanticide, with boys being regarded as more culturally preferred. – resurfaced shortly after the One Child Law was set into effect. It had been widely common in China prior to 1949, but then was eradicated in the early 1950’s. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that there are still 32 million more boys than there are girls, under the age of 20. Another study found that the sex ratio for boys to girls compared to the global average is much higher. (Global average being 107 boys per 100 girls; and China’s average being 113 boys per 100 girls). It is blatantly obvious that, in China, males are valued about females, but why? The Chinese culture places value on males because of the stability they offer vs the females, and the notion that when a boy grows into a man

The One-Child Policy also known as the “official program initiated in the late 1970s and early ’80s by the central government of China” which “limit[ed] the great majority of family units in the country to one child each” (Pletcher 1) was a strict policy that limited the childbirth of families in China as a countermeasure to the explosive population growth. However,

In the article "Gendercide" (2010), the author focuses on the alarming rate at which parents are aborting or killing baby girls in the attempt to have a baby boy. Practically world wide, there is a preference for sons. One country highly affected by this ideology is China. With the one-child limit in China, the desire for males rather than females is heightened. Although, it is not just this rule that contributes to the demand for baby boys. Many countries prefer a son because of old traditions. In many areas of the world, when a daughter married, she left her family and no one was left to take care of the parents when they aged. Having a son also used to be notably beneficial economically for a family. In most cases, many traditions that favored

Interconnections between Population Policies in China and Cultural, Historical Perceptions regarding Sexuality, Reproduction, and Health

There have been significance changes in these practices and they remain significantly distinct in Urban and rural areas. For instance, free marriage is promoted now. Rural women, unlike before have more freedom, they have their own choice in migrating to the new cities to work where they are often seen as the “cheap” labor. Unlike traditionally, women are economical independent of their husbands. There is huge gap between urban and rural China, especially when it comes to the gender equality. This fact, adds further complexity in explaining the marital and family situations. Rural china still reflects on following their ancestral customs whereas the urban China is following the footsteps of the developed nations. There is increasing preference for nuclear family. Furthermore, urbanizations have changed beliefs of people when it comes to children. Having children was considered first priority before, but now most of these