The One Child Policy and Gender Inequality

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Given the high sex ratio in recent China population report, the abnormally excessive male birth exemplifies the persistence of son preference on women’s fertility behavior. Son preference rooted in Chinese agriculture-based economy and historical feudalism, in consistence with the reliance on laborers and continuing the family line. Older people prefer to depend on their sons to get financial and physical support, while daughters are regarded as property of their husband’s family since the day of marriage.

However, the wish of having multiple children, especially boys, was challenged by the strict One Child policy in 1979. The One Child policy, also known as Family Planning policy, was implemented across the country as one of fundamental national policies under the administration of Population and Family Planning Commission. Based on the purpose of lowering fertility rates to ease social pressure and improve living standard, a married couple is only allowed to have one child with some exceptions made for some ethnic minorities and rural families. The majority of citizens are classified by ethnics and occupations to fit the specific regulations of compensations and punishments to prevent them from having a second child (Li, J., & Cooney, R, S. 1993).

This proposal eventually triggered a profound introspection which chronically melted patriarchal cultures. The broad topic of how government’s decisions altered social norms is discussed within five sociological studies in my essay in allusion to the impacts of One Child policy on gender inequality.

Key questions

Gender inequality involves ideological preference and physical loss of equal opportunities to gain. The five articles examined the indirect effort of One Child policy on...

... middle of paper ...

...onal Journal of Educational Development, 5, 474-486.

Li, J., & Cooney, R, S. (1993). Son preference and one child policy in china: 1979-1988. Population Research and Policy Review, 12(3), 277-296.

Liu, F. (2006) Boys as only-children and girls as only-children—parental gendered expectations of the only-child in the nuclear Chinese family in present-day China, Gender and Education, 18(5), 491-505

Merli, M. G., & Smith, H. L. (2002). Has the Chinese Family Planning Policy been

successful in changing fertility preferences?. Demography, 39(3), 557-572.

Ming,T., & Lynne,R. (2002). The only child and educational opportunity for girls in urban China. Gender & Society, 16(1), 74-92.

Zhai, F.,&Gao, Q. (2010). Center-based care in the context of one child policy in China: Do child gender and siblings matter?.Population Research and Policy Review, 29(5), 745-774.

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