China stresses family values as women put off marriage

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

  China stresses family values as women put off marriage

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

• The story: Under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has brought back talk of “family values" and women’s importance as caretakers, messages that many women say are out of step with their thinking on when—or even whether—to marry. The Party has long prided itself on promoting gender equality, but also demands that households follow its priorities of the moment. The emphasis on women’s role in educating children and caring for the elderly comes as birth and marriage rates drop, trends that may have dire economic consequences.
• Why this change: The new emphasis on women’s role as caretakers comes as the country faces dire demographic trends; on social media, women’s-rights accounts are deleted. 

1. In the early years of Communist rule, Mao Zedong urged women to join the workforce to help build the nation and to hold off on marrying and having children. Later came edicts that couples could have only one child to avoid runaway population growth.
2. During Mr. Xi’s time in power, new party slogans emphasizing “family, family education and family virtues" or “pass on the red gene" have been coupled with efforts to censor voices on women’s rights.
3. In recent days, more than a dozen accounts used by women’s-rights groups were deleted from the Weibo social-media platform as well as cultural-discussion site Douban.com.
4. The deletions came as China awaits the results of a once-a-decade census, which had been expected by early April but have yet to be released. Demographers expect the data to show a sharp drop in births in 2020, the fourth straight decline following a brief rise in 2016, the first year after the one-child policy was lifted.

• New thinking: Many women, especially in cities, say they are in no hurry to get married and have a family. Most of the women who are resisting marriage and children wouldn’t call themselves feminists. The biggest challenge for the government is ordinary women just pushing back against pressure to get married and have children. In 1990, almost all Chinese women married before the age of 30, but by 2015, in cities like Shanghai, around one-fifth of women were still unmarried by their 30th birthday. 

1. Mr. Xi has built Confucian values, including conservative views of women’s role in the family, into his “China Dream" of nationalist revival
2. If you’ve got these highly educated women who don’t want to get married, that then becomes part of the demographic worries and concerns that play into this larger discourse on family values
3. The state-sponsored All-China Women’s Federation is the main organ through which the Communist Party spreads its messaging for women
4. Xi has called families the “cells of society" that underpin the prosperity of the nation. While saying there should be equality between women and men, Xi stresses that society must “give full play to the unique role of women in promoting the family virtues of the Chinese nation"

• No impact at all: Despite such rhetoric from Xi himself, fewer Chinese marry every year. In 2019, China’s marriage registrations were 6.6 per 1,000 people, compared with 9.6 in 2014. Part of the problem is that the decades of the one-child policy mean there are now simply fewer people of marriage age.

1. Alarmed by a rise in divorces in parallel, Chinese authorities this year instituted a 30-day cooling-off period for couples who seek to split up. The wait, during which either party can opt out, can be especially disadvantageous for women trying to get out of abusive marriages
2. Of divorce cases that go to court, more than 70% are initiated by women, China’s highest-ranking judge has said. Lawyers and activists say judges routinely turn down divorce filings the first time around, ordering couples to try to work things out. Only 38% of cases adjudicated in court were granted a divorce in 2018, according to the Civil Affairs Ministry, the lowest ever.

• Social change: Pockets of society and media are increasingly accepting of divorce or staying single. Some say that if the government wants to defend marriage and raise fertility, “It should have policies supporting motherhood and not put all these burdens on women." Declines in state-funded child care are among reasons Chinese women are choosing to leave work. The challenge for many countries [seeking to raise fertility rates], including China, is the balance women face between employment, careers and caring for children and family.
• Summary: As the Chinese state grows more and more ambitious, and spreads its geopolitical tentacles far and wide, it may be hollowing out from within, facing a real demographic time bomb. 

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.