Social, economic and political impacts of gender structure

China’s One Child Policy

Confusious said :

When a son is bornLet him sleep on the bed

Clothe him with fine clothesAnd give him jade to play……

When a daughter is bornLet her sleep on the ground

Wrap her in common wrappingsAnd give broken tiles to play……

China’s One

Child Policy

China’s One Child Policy- Videos

China's one-child policy creates massive gender imbalance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndWuq6AznmQ&feature=channel

Al Jazeera TV 3 mins 20 secs

http://vimeo.com/421369It’s raining Men –Gender imbalance – 5 mins 30 secs

China's ageing population http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osKFn1WzKIc&feature=channel

Al Jazeera TV 3 mins

The Dying Rooms 1/4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Uq3z7KOjM

Part 1 – 8 mins

CONTEXT

The People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949. At the time, its population was 550 million. People were encouraged to have children as they believed this gave them power, and the population more than doubled to 1.13 billion by 1990. The problem then was how to feed all these people !

China has a quarter of the world’s population, but only:

7% of the earth’s land surface

8% of the bio-climatic resources

5% of fossil fuels

A large part of China is unusable due to mountains, deserts and forests.

There was a POPULATION-RESOURCE imbalance.

What is the One Child Policy?

• It is a policy the Chinese Government introduced in 1979 to try and solve the problem of overpopulation.

• It’s main purpose was to ensure that China could support it’s large population with facilities such as healthcare, education, housing, good jobs and food.

China: Raining Men on Vimeo

What did the policy say?

The policy is not formally written into Chinese law but is strictly enforced by

• favouring delayed marriage and delayed childbirth

• Favouring fewer and healthier births

• Laying down the rule of one child per couple

CARROTS STICKS

1. Cash bonuses, improved housing and free education.

2. Free medical care3. There is an increased

role for both parents in the workplace.

1. Your second child and any others you decide to have will be unregistered.

2. All bonuses, housing, free education and medical care will be lost.

3. You will not be supported with future child birth control

☑ ☒

The ‘Carrots’ and ‘Sticks’

Facts of the One Child Policy

• Due to the increasing difference between the sex ratio, now 118 boys:100 girls (usually 105:100) and also an increase of neglect, infanticide, abandonment and abortion of female babies, some couples with their first child being a girl are allowed to try for a second male baby.

• In order to avoid a drastic decrease in population, if a both people wishing to begin a family are sibling-less, they are allowed to have two children, legally.

How the Policy Is Enforced

• Couples must apply to be able to try for a baby, they are then considered and told when they can begin.

• They can only register babies with registration cards, which are issued by their employers.

• ‘Busy-bodies’ are established around the workplace and ask women questions about themselves and their family plans, they then report the information back to the workplace’s nurse etc.

• ‘Granny police’ keep an eye on local women, advising them on the benefits of one-child families and pressuring them into abortions if they become pregnant a second time and also sterilisation.

Look at what has happened and will happen to China’s population over time.

Draw the 2000 population pyramid and annotate how the one child policy has impacted on the population structure.

This is an interesting graph showing the gender imbalance of the One Child Policy.

Copy this diagram and write a paragraph explaining it.

YOUR TASK …..

• Draw a table to record the POSITIVE and NEGATIVE social, economic and political impacts of the policy

• Read the newspaper articles and record the impacts in your table

• Watch the video and add to your notes and impact table

• China's One Child Policy• (Horizon – China’s One Child Policy?)

China’s One Child Policy- Videos

China's one-child policy creates massive gender imbalance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndWuq6AznmQ&feature=channel

Al Jazeera TV 3 mins 20 secs

http://vimeo.com/421369It’s raining Men –Gender imbalance – 5 mins 30 secs

China's ageing population http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osKFn1WzKIc&feature=channel

Al Jazeera TV 3 mins

The Dying Rooms 1/4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Uq3z7KOjM

Part 1 – 8 mins

Political Impacts

• 27 provinces in China allow couples who are only children to have 2 children. This has occurred since 1980

• Hainan province has higher pensions for families with only girls (you tube clip)

• Excess of young men could lead to political extremism

• There could be a pressure to kidnap or import brides

Economic Impacts

• Demand for natural resources has been reduced• Steady employment rate• Policy considered to have helped China’s

current economic growth• Individual savings rate has increased as people

spend less on children and save for the future• Sex industry workers are at a higher risk of

HIV/AIDS as there has been an increase in prostitution

• Unequal enforcement has occurred as the rich can afford to pay the fines

Social Impacts

• Reduction in population growth has led to a reduction in problems associated with over population and strain on the environment

• Better health service for women and better ante natal care

• In some areas a ‘Care for Girls’ program aims at eradicating cultural discrimination against girls in rural and underdeveloped areas by providing subsidies and education

• Bachelor army – an estimated 10 million young men will have no wives or children

• Feared that restless young men could vent their frustration through violence and crime

Success of the Policy

The policy has led to a decrease in population by 300 million over the 30

years the policy has been in place

Benefits of the Policy

• It encourages female independence and the opportunity to be equal in the workplace

• Improved standards of living for families• Education is costly so the one child can be more

highly educated• Less mouths to feed so less famine• Less competition for jobs – lower unemployment• The problems of overpopulation decreases

Failures of the policy

• Many of the actions taking place under the policy are inhumane:

- As the families prefer to have a male child rather than a female, many baby girls are left to abandoned or left to die in ‘dying rooms’.

- Abortions of a second or female child are enacted right up until the last minute - a baby can be born and still given a lethal injection (inserted into the head) as long as it hasn’t taken it’s first breath.

• As the ratio girls to boys decreases, it means ‘bachelor boys’ evolve, which means that theoretically there will not be enough women to marry men and therefore around 15-18 to every 100 will be left single.

• As many families now only have one child, that child becomes spoilt as the parents indulge upon it, this cause an increase in ‘little emperors’ and obese children growing into adults.

• It could be considered against human rights to be dictated as to how many children you can have.

Evaluation

• Sum up the strengths and weaknesses of the policy

• What are the main threats to China as a result of the policy?

• What do you think are the opportunities for China as a result of the policy?