User:KCterm/Gender inequality in China

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One-child policy and gender disparity[edit]

Main article: One-child policy

In Chinese history, there has been a strong preference for sons, which is influenced by the patriarchal family structures. The preference for sons stems from various factors. Firstly, sons traditionally are responsible for providing financial support and care for parents, whereas daughters assume this role only when a son is absent. Secondly, men in Chinese society historically have made more money, inherited property, and continued the family line, leading women to be less preferred. The preference of sons is a primary factor in what started the one-child policy and gender disparity in China.

Introduced in 1979, the policy set a limit on the number of children parents could have. Because parents preferred sons, the incidence of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide substantially increased. This has led to male overpopulation in China; in 2005, men under age 20 outnumbered women by more than 32 million.

In 2015, the one-child policy was abolished, and a two-child policy was introduced. Couples were encourage to have a second child, and the policy led to 5.4 million extra birth in China. Then in 2021, a three-child policy was introduced due to urgent needs to repopulate China. Families were told that they will be given better benefits and opportunities if they were to help contributed in repopulating the country.

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Wage inequality[edit]

Due to patriarchal traditions in China, the wage gap between women and men has always been present. This is due to the historical agricultural presence and gender attitudes towards women in the workplace. Cultural norms in China have a long history of preferring men over women, which also correlates into the workplace. The cultural norms rely heavily on men working to provide and take care of the family, therefore they are often hired and paid at a higher rate than women in China. Women's traditional gender role in China focused on staying at home and taking care of the house and family, while the men go and provide at work. These attitudes on women's gender role are still persistent in China today, and negatively affect the amount of jobs, work hours, and pay that women are offered.

Due to China's recent economic growth, there has been an increase in jobs, but a decline in women in the workforce. In the 1980s, women in the workplace made up about half of the force, but by 2017, the percentage dropped by almost 20 percent. The pattern of decrease is still prevalent today, largely due to discrimination, social norms, and traditional values being implemented in the workplace.

Gender-based wage stratification has become a major issue in post-reform China. A 2013 study found that women are paid 75.4 percent of what men are paid (an average of RMB 399 per month, compared to RMB 529 per month for men).

According to the report, there is evidence of a significant increase in the gender wage gap in China's urban labor market during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The report highlights that there is a substantial difference between the wages of men and women, with a gap of 32%.

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Family pressure and marriage[edit]

Main article: Chinese kinship

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Further examples of family pressure in Chinese society are flash marriages. A flash (or blitz) marriage is a union between partners who have known each other for less than a month. This form of union has become increasingly popular in China due to economic and social factors. Men and women perceive happiness as a result of stability in contemporary China, particularly in the relationship and family spheres. However, financial stability and successful careers have also become predominant aspirations amongst young professionals. Young professionals (particularly women) are often still expected to marry at a relatively-young age, and if they fail to do so they are known as sheng nu (leftover women). Strong family pressure reinforces this ideology, and the focus on career development often leads to less time for individual personal lives (resulting in flash marriages).

Historically, in China, early marriage was accepted. Child marriage mainly impacted women under the age of 18 up until 1950, when laws were created to prohibit them. These child marriages created room for gender inequality, since many of the children who were married were women and not men. One main reason for child marriage was to marry the women off so that their family would no longer need to actively provide for her, instead the woman's husband would step up to the role. After laws were created in criminalizing child marriages, the nation funded campaigns to promote marriages after the age of 18, in order to also encourage the limitation of population growth. One of the policies required women and men to marry later in life, the ideal age for women being 25 years old. The age requirement for women to marry was still lower than that of men's, even with the requirement, which contributed to marriage inequality even after child marriages were prohibited. In the modern day, child marriages are actively rising in China, which is affecting women more than men, creating a gender gap in child marriages. This growth happened between the years of 2000-2010, with 2.85 percent rise is women being married before the age of 18.

The revival of patriarchy has not always provided privileges for men. Ordinary men surviving in Chinese society have always faced a crisis of masculinity caused by popular wedding norms. Men are asked to take on the role of financial providers, including the material dimension of buying houses and cars. The different experiences of gender and power relations have led to a constant rise in misogynistic voices.

"Surplus women"[edit]

Main article: Sheng nu

Women who resist family pressure and do not marry by their late twenties risk being stigmatized as sheng nu (剩女, leftover women). Due to the prevalence of marriage in China, these unmarried women are often seen by potential employers as overly particular or otherwise flawed. The "surplus women" perception promotes gender inequality in the workplace by characterizing unmarried women as inferior. Older women frequently struggle to find jobs, due to discrimination against their marital status.

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Housing

In relation to gender inequality in marriage, housing has also promoted inequality in regards to owning, buying, and division of duties. Recently, housing prices in China are rapidly rising, leading to housing inequality and gender gaps for homeownership. In marriages in China, more traditional values are being reported amongst younger generations, leading into the reason as to why men in marriages are the individuals who primarily own the houses instead of the wives. The traditional values include the belief that men are the ones responsible for providing for the family and owning property, especially in marital agreements. These traditional values affect women by having them negotiate their own power, and leads to inequality in the housing market and marriage. On the other hand, homeownership is also affecting the rates of marriage. Rising house prices are making it harder for couples in China to get married sooner, due to the belief that it is required to have a home set up in order for marriage to take place. This belief causes puts more pressure on the men in China to acquire a house and have it ready for a wife.

Along with gender inequality in home ownership and marriage, there is also gender inequalities in regards to time allocation of duties around the house. Due to urbanization and changes within the workforce, allocation of duties at home have shifted. In recent years, more women have been joining the workforce, leading to men having more duties at home. Even though men are having to fulfill more duties at home, this is not always equal across all of China. Instead, a lot of women are having to fulfill duties at work and go home to fill more household duties, meanwhile men do not, leading to an allocation of unequal time in regards to gender.

Post-Mao era

(There is a section of gender inequality on education, but it is only listed under the before the 1949 revolution. Therefore, there needs to be an updated section on education under the Post-Mao era heading.)

Education

In China, there is a strong son preference in relation to patriarchal norms. Son preference in society creates an inequality of women participating in the education system. Due to a higher rate of men in the education system, the average is that men acquire "1.3 years of education more than women". This is caused because in Chinese society there is higher pressure on men to do better in their education, which will then lead them to better and higher paying jobs that can support their family. This, however, leaves women at a disadvantage in regards to obtaining and having the motivation to pursue education. Gender norms in China create these certain pressures and attitudes to reasons why men have access to better and higher education than women.

There is also a significant amount of gender inequality in school. Textbooks are a main component of reinforcing and creating gender inequality in China. Within Chinese textbooks, gender stereotypes are promoted, especially in pictures. In younger grades, many pictures in Chinese textbooks include gender stereotypes, such as women pictured doing household chores, while men are pictured working at their jobs. Women are also portrayed as taking care of the house duties and children, while men are portrayed as firemen or police officers at work.

Although there have been recent developments of more women participating in STEM, they are still largely underrepresented, unlike their male counterparts. This is mostly due to lower motivation in women to acquire these positions because of gender stereotypes and discrimination in the education system and workforce.

References

Wang, Weidong; Liu, Xiaohong; Dong, Yongqing; Bai, Yunli; Wang, Shukun; Zhang, Linxiu (2019). "Son Preference, Eldest Son Preference, and Educational Attainment: Evidence From Chinese Families". Journal of Family Issues. 41 (5): 636–666. doi:10.1177/0192513X19874091. ISSN 0192-513X.

Xiao, Saizi; Asadullah, M. Niaz (2020-10-01). "Social Norms and Gender Differences in Labor Force Participation in China". Feminist Economics. 26 (4): 114–148. doi:10.1080/13545701.2020.1758337. ISSN 1354-5701.

Qing, Shisong (2020-07-08). "Gender role attitudes and male-female income differences in China". The Journal of Chinese Sociology. 7 (1): 12. doi:10.1186/s40711-020-00123-w. ISSN 2198-2635.

Fan, Suiqiong; Qian, Yue; Koski, Alissa (2022). "Child Marriage in Mainland China". Studies in Family Planning. 53 (1): 23–42. doi:10.1111/sifp.12185. ISSN 0039-3665.

Cui, Can; Yu, Shan; Huang, Youqin (2023-03-01). "His house, her house? Gender inequality and homeownership among married couples in urban China". Cities. 134: 104187. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2022.104187. ISSN 0264-2751.

Zheng, Jing (2020-03-14). "Women's "Gender Capital" Experiences in Conjugal Housing Consumption: Understanding a New Pattern of Gender Inequality in China". Chinese Sociological Review. 52 (2): 144–166. doi:10.1080/21620555.2019.1680279. ISSN 2162-0555.

de Bruin, Anne; Liu, Na (2020-04-01). "The urbanization-household gender inequality nexus: Evidence from time allocation in China". China Economic Review. 60: 101301. doi:10.1016/j.chieco.2019.05.001. ISSN 1043-951X.

Du, Huichao; Xiao, Yun; Zhao, Liqiu (2021). "Education and gender role attitudes". Journal of Population Economics. 34 (2): 475–513. doi:10.1007/s00148-020-00793-3. ISSN 0933-1433.

Jiang, Yuyue (2022). "The Gender Inequality in Chinese Textbooks:". doi:10.2991/assehr.k.220131.196.

Yang, Xueyan; Gao, Chenzhuo (2021). "Missing Women in STEM in China: an Empirical Study from the Viewpoint of Achievement Motivation and Gender Socialization". Research in Science Education. 51 (6): 1705–1723. doi:10.1007/s11165-019-9833-0. ISSN 0157-244X.