Chinese Women in Marriage, Family Planning, and Family Responsibilities - Report Example

Chinese women in marriage, family planning, and family responsibilities Introduction Over years, Chinese and foreigners have portrayed China as a place where patriarchal family systems are entrenched. The 1949 revolution together with the post-Mao reforms re-arranged marriage, family and it also affected the lives of people to greater extents. Patriarchy and gender hierarchy is still evident in the local Chinese communities. They are extremely adaptable to the successive environments of revolution and reforms. These two principles still manage to flourish even as the old ones disappear. Ever since the final years of the Qing dynasty, revolution and reforms have been both corrosive and preservative of family arrangements. In the 20Th century, key meanings of life were major topics in public discussions. These major topics were about women and they included marriage, family, sexuality and planning as well as gender responsibilities. Marriages Chinese marriage practices in the past seemed like transformations from family–based operations to limited individual choice. In Chinese past marriage practice, they regarded the matching of spouses to relate with free-choice marriage. Through the end of the Mao years and into the reform era, the act of parental involvement in marriage choices continued in both rural and urban settings (Hershatter 8). As much as it is no longer rampant, mothers in the past appear to have exercised parental influence. During the Chinese collective period, officials attempted to discourage betrothal and the purchase of women. As much as it was unsuccessful, it was able to gain more influence in the urban areas where they practiced courtship. Bride price became more important than dowry and was enough to cater for the bride’s family expenses and leave some to bring in wife for the son in the family (Hershatter 8). Rapid improvement in women social status has important implications for marriage practices in china. Medial age for marriage that was 20 in the 1940s hit 23 by the 1980s (Hershatter 9). Despite the delays, marriage is still as important institution and the women marry the men of higher social statuses. It has been a common traditional practice in china and the less educate men may lack spouses. This cultural norm is still in place in contemporary china though many marriages have transformed from being parent–based into love-based (Hershatter 8). This graph indicates how women in China no longer get married in their earlier years. In addition, it indicates how many men also end up not getting married. Figure 1. Marriage Years in China. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013. Hypergamy which was due to marrying men of social status but now that women are reducing the education gap between the two genders hyeprgamy is no longer prevalent. The current trend involves the growing age differences between the two genders. This allows prospective husbands to accumulate more finances than that of the prospective wives with similar educational standards. As much as women are also working, men seem to earn more and work more compared to the female population. Figure 2. Employment Rates in China. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013. After the economic boom in China, it is evident that economic factors have to become important determinants of entry into marriage during the economic reform era. Housing price also affects marriages in China and they are responsible for delayed marriages but it is a positive effect of education on marriage entry. Economic pressures combined with hypergamy culture therefore make marriage difficult to attain for two groups which include men with little education and highly educated women. Across the 20Th century, courtship practices and discussions about love changed greatly. Currently, women transition into married life has become more partial, less traumatic, and more varied like earlier years (Hershatter 8). Marital law takes the credit for pricing these long-term results, Social meeting places for young people that was only present in urban areas have now proliferated to town and villages. Parent involvement in past marriage practices is also noticeable and the parents often initiated a match in the rural areas and consented to their children’s choices in the urban areas. Family planning Currently, family planning is a basic policy in China. The policy is has combined efforts of government guidance as well as voluntary compliance by citizens (Zhang 35). The government efforts include a combination of guiding concepts such as, formulations by the central and local governments of policies and legislation that ensure population birth control. In addition, the government has also improved the population structure and quality as well as population development plans. The government has also provided consultation, instruction, and technical services that concern reproduction, contraception, good childbirth as well good upbringing of children. On their part, citizens have voluntary complied and couples of child bearing age , with the provisions of the relevant state policies and regulations, women have a variety of contraception methods to choose from. This way, the will give birth to children in a more reasonable and planned way. They do considering factors such as age, health status, employment, as well as financial standards of both spouses. Family requirement has basic requirement, which are late marriages as well as late childbearing. In addition, having few but healthy children, especially one child per couple is also one of the requirements. Flexible family planning policies are in place for rural people and ethnic minorities (Zhang 35). Consequently, this has immensely contributed to the population decrease though studies contend it is still high despite claimed if it were not for these measures Chinese would be approximately 400 Million by now (Jalsevac). In the rural area, couples can have a second baby in unexceptional cases but that is normally after waiting for many years after the birth of the first child. In areas occupied by ethnic minorities, each ethnic group may adopt a family planning mode according to their wish, population, available natural resources, the economy, cultures, as well as customs. The state’s aim to control its population has led to numerous abortions, which compared to other regions like US is far higher. Recent researches claim the rate has hit an annual of 13 million abortions each including even the forced incidences that not only result to severe pain on the part of numerous young girls but also complications later in respective adult life (Rabinovitch). Figure 3: Abortion Statistics (Total 1980-2010). 2013. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013 Figure 4: Comparison of annual Abortion Statistics. 2013. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013. < http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/forced-abortion-statistics> Figure 1: Feng Jianmei (after aborting her 7-month-old baby in June 2012): A case scenario of what happens in backstreets premises known for forced abortions in China after. 2013. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013. Before implementing family planning policies in China, the population was growing at a fast rate. After the founding of new china, it failed to solve the problem of rapid population growth. China entered its second peak birth period in the 1960s. Between 1962 and 1972, the annual number of births in china averaged 26.69 million. In 1969, the population was more than 800m. The growing population put pressure on the available resources making the government advocate for family planning and contraceptive use. Figure 4. Post-WWII baby boom. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013. The red line in he graph indicates the population boom in the 1960s that made the government introduce family palanning strategies. Ever since that time, the children being born has reduced as evident in the graph. Family Responsibilities Ever since the beginning of the New Culture period and throughout the 1930s, the family system entrenched by the educated men reformers relied in gendered labor diction in which women’s domestic roles were written into modernity (Hershatter 113). The nuclear family was the cornerstone of economic heath as well as the place where women contributed to third nations by creating a comfortable and nurturing environment for their husbands and families. The women did this by ensuring that they did their household chores and supported their husbands by doing labor duties to get some wages (Croll 287). Rearing of children was also a responsibility for women. Some native groups such as Ningbo community in Shanghai that was prominent in business and white-collar jobs believed in the cult of domestication of women (Hershatter 113). Women in this community were to stay at home instead of going to work. They explain their cult with reference to Confucian womanly virtues. As much the republican codes and legal practices awarded women with new rights, it did not guarantee them total protection. Women laboured as prostitutes and they were re-married once widowed. The community assumed this as the choice of the woman but it was because of the financial or material constraints that put them in such situations. They forcefully remained with their husbands even if they were unhappy or their husbands had abused them. They attribute this to the fact that husbands and wives had an obligation to cohabit hence they could not allow the women to run away and take refuge in the natal homes. In spite of equal inheritance rights, women not granted their property because their fathers had a social practice of dividing the property amongst their sons prior to their death. In the Chinese republican period, women brought some property of their own into their marital homes, the property included goods, gifts and their previously earned income. The Civil Codes of 1930 gave women the right to manage the property they came with independent of their husbands ( Hershatter 113). As much as the women retained ownership of their wedding gifts and their earnings from waged work, their claim on family property was limited. Widow also found themselves with reduced custodians over family property one their husbands died. This artwork of ancient china displays women to get some wages that could support their families. In the image, they are working on silk that they will later on sell. Figure 5. History of silk. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013. Things have changed over time when it comes to roles of women in Chinese culture. Household culture has also revolutionized and mother in law and their daughter in law no longer live together as they did in the early years of collectivization. Currently, daughters have more independence and although some work outside their homes, their mother in laws provide for the children. China was recently a model that displays gender inequality at the working place. It has however been noted that it is losing ground as the fastest growing urban working force. This is probably because of movements that advocate for stay at home women as well as the fact that women still have to bear the burden of childcare, cooking at home in addition to other house works. This image evidently displays the gender gap at the working places. Figure 6. Gender gap. Web. Accessed 6Th May 2013. Work Cited Croll, Elisabeth . Feminism and Socialism in China. (Routledge Revivals) Routledge, Jan 11, 2013. Print. Hershatter, Gail. Women in Chinas Long Twentieth Century. Berkeley: Global, Area, and International Archive, 2007. Internet resource. Jalsevac, John. 330 million abortions since 1971 in China; 1500 per hour: government stats. LifeSiteNews.com. 18Th March 2013. Web. 6Th March 2013. Jiang, Chengcheng. What Happens When Only 1.2% of Chinese Women Take the Pill: 13 Million Abortions: When you take into account abortions carried out in backstreet premises, the annual number is even higher. Time. 18Th March 2013. Web. 6Th March 2013. Rabinovitch, Simon. Data reveal scale of China abortions March 15, 2013 6:48 Statistics about Forced Abortion in China. Zhang, Kaining. Sexual and Reproductive Health in China: Reorienting Concepts and Methodology. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Print. Read More