What effect will Chinas policy with three children have on working women?
Chinas new policy of allowing couples to have three children (replacing the previous limit of two) is an attempt to respond to the concerns of an aging population and a slowing birth rate. But police implications for working women and their families mean that very few will welcome change with open arms. Population aging is a major concern in China. According to the latternational census in november 2020 , the number of people in the country aged 60 and over has reached 260 million or 18.7 percent of the population. By 2050, that number is expected to grow to 500 million. Although societies are aging around the world, the challenges are most acute in China due to the number of people involved (nearly 20 percent of the global population), their relatively low income levels, and the stage of economic development countries. While improved living standards have increased life expectancy, statess family planning policy, a childs policy has contributed most to the aging trend. This policy was formally introduced in 1979 in response to concerns that uncontrolled population growth would jeopardize economic development and modernization, and was strictly and effectively implemented in urban areas through workplace fines and other punitive measures. But nearly four decades later, the first generation of children with one-child policies have now become parents themselves, placing on their shoulders the responsibility that potentially everyone has to support two parents and four grandparents. Recommended      Social media discussions among women commented on how unfairly the new policy initiative would affect their employment and family life  To address this inverted population pyramid, the state ended the one-child policy in 2015 by introducing a two-child national policy in its place. Since the state had already (by the mid-1980s) allowed rural couples to have a second child if their first was a girl, this new policy targeted the urban population. But some couples only 5 percent or 6 percent chose a second child, given inadequate child care and rising family living costs in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The new policy for three children has caused a waveonline discussionamong Chinese citizens, with many expressing shock and dissatisfaction with the renewed states efforts to manipulate childbirth decisions. Some posted pictures of previous state slogans online dating back to the period of a childs politics.Such a sloganstated, if a person exceeds the birth quota, the villagers of the whole village should undergo the tubular connection. Social mediadiscussionsamong women commented on how unfairly the new policy initiative would affect their employment and family life, given that childcare remains a womens job in China. Only a very small minority hoped that implementing the three-child policy would lead the state straightimprove housing, education, medical equipment and old age care. Previous state slogans from a childs policy period include, if a person exceeds the birth quota, villagers throughout the village must undergo tubal ligation. (AFP via Getty Images)  Urban v rural  The influence of the police will depend on where you look in China. In major cities and provincial capitals, minefive-year study of Chinese family lifereveals that only a small fraction of couples born in the 1980s, the first group of single-child generation had a second child even when allowed. So it seems unlikely that couples in the 1980s group would benefit from child support. Married respondents born in the 1990s, acclimatized to the culture of only children, have adopted a expectation to see the possibility of having a second child. Comments from an interviewee (born 1991) capture the dilemma he and his wife face as they think about having a second child:  Its possible. But I will not make the final decision. If my wife suffers a lot from raising our first child, we will definitely not have a second child. Before their first child arrived, many of my friends were so confident in their plans to have a second child. But once they had their first child, everyone hesitated to have a second. We will see if our future financial situation allows us and it will also depend on whether our parents are in good health. Younger couples in urban areas as welldid not show strong preferencefor boys. In contrast, my study found that in rural areas many of the married groups of the 1980s and 1990s already had a second child. Whether rural couples respond positively to the new three-child policy will depend on the gender of their two existing children. Despite increased investment in girls education in rural China, I found outsteady son preferencethrough three generations. If a couple with two children are both daughters, it is very likely that they will try to have a third child. Indeed, in rural Fujian, where there is a very strong culture and custom of descent than in many northern provinces, some villagers born in the early 1990s already had three or four children in their quest to produce a male heir . In China, the availability of childcare for infants under the age of three means that when maternity leave for young mothers ends, the mother or mother-in-law will take over childcare responsibilities. (AFP via Getty Images)  The burden of care  Having three children will have gender and generational consequences. Gender discrimination isdeeply institutionalizedin the Chinese labor market. When asked if they planned to have a second child, some of my interviewed wives admitted that their employers, unwilling to bear the costs of their reproductive decisions, made the placement difficult. If gender discrimination in the labor market is not systematically addressed, the choice of three children will have a detrimental effect on the employment trajectory of women. Limited childcare provision for infants under the age of three means that when maternity leave for young mothers ends (currently after about four months), the mother or mother-in-law will take on childcare responsibilities. for their new nephew. Given the lack of good quality homes for the elderly, these grandparents will also have to take care of their parents. In short, having three children will only serve to increase the burden of caring for all generations. Jieyu Liu is a lecturer in Chinese sociology and deputy director of the China Institute, SOAS, University of London. This article first appeared on Conversation.