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Abstract
Fertility and other demographic indicators do not simply follow the ups and downs of policy. In order to understand more objectively and accurately the degree of acceptance, impact and actual effect of the unconditional two-child policy (quanmian erhai zhengce) as well as the long-term trend of China’s fertility rate, we need to proceed from the institutional and cultural context of Chinese society. The complex social mechanisms behind the low fertility situation in China should be interpreted from the perspective of gender and development. Drawing on international theories and lessons learned from past experience, we find, from a gender and development perspective, that women’s work- family conflict is the key to examining China’s low fertility rate; designing public policy with a gender perspective to promote the participation of government, society, business and multiple male and female actors is a social mechanism that alleviates women’s work-family conflict; and advocating the Marxist gender ideology of equality between men and women and abandoning traditional Confucian patriarchal and familial thinking are the ideological basis for alleviating women’s work-family conflict. In view of the dual identity of women as material producers and social reproducers, promoting the simultaneous development of gender equality in the public and private sectors and alleviating women’s work-family conflicts will make a positive contribution to maintaining a certain fertility rate and level of economic development.
生育率以及其他人口指标变化，并非简单地随政策起伏。为了更为客观、准确地理解全面两孩政策的接受度、影响和实际效果以及中国生育率的长期走向，有必要从中国社会的制度和文化情境出发，综合社会性别和发展的视角来理解我国低生育态势背后的复杂社会机制。借鉴国际理论和经验教训，从社会性别和发展的视角审视中国的低生育率现象，女性的工作—家庭冲突是关键；设计具有社会性别视角的公共政策，推动政府、社会、企业界和男女两性的多元主体参与是缓解女性工作—家庭冲突的社会机制；提倡马克思主义男女平等的性别意识形态，摈弃传统儒家父权思想和家族主义思想，是缓解女性工作—家庭冲突的意识形态基础。鉴于女性的物质生产者和社会再生产者的双重身份，促进公私领域性别平等的同步发展，缓解女性的工作—家庭冲突，将会对维持一定的生育率和经济发展都有积极贡献。
Notes
1 Li Xiru, “The Effect of China’s ‘Unconditional Two-child Policy’ Is Continuing to Appear in 2017.”
2 See Yingchun Ji, Xiaogang Wu, Shengwei Sun and Guangye He, “Unequal Care, Unequal Work: Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of Gender Inequality in Post-Reform Urban China,” pp. 1-14; Song Shaopeng, “From Visibility to Disappearance: Family Labor in the Period of Collectivism (1949-1966).”
3 See Guo Zhigang et al., Low Fertility and Sustainable Population Development in China.
4 Chen Wei, “The Dynamic Relationship of ‘Development—Family Planning—Development’”; Jiajian Chen, Robert. D. Retherford, Minja Kim Choe, Xiru Li and Ying Hu, “Province-level Variation in the Achievement of Below-replacement Fertility in China,” pp. 309-328.
5 Cai Yong, “The Effect of Social and Economic Development on the Decline of Fertility: International Experience and Comparison between Jiangsu and Zhejiang,” in Zeng Yi, Gu Baochang, Guo Zhigang et al., China’s Population and Economic Development under Low Fertility Levels.
6 Griffith Feeney, Feng Wang, Mingkun Zhou and Baoyu Xiao, “Recent Fertility Dynamics in China: Results from the 1987 One Percent Population Survey,” pp. 297-322; M. Giovanna Merli and Herbert I. Smith, “Has the Chinese Family Planning Policy Been Successful in Changing Fertility Preference?”, pp. 557-572.
7 Li Jianxin and Tu Zhaoqing, “Lagged and Compressed: Characteristics of Fertility Transition in China’s Population.”
8 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables.”
9 Jean-Claude Chesnais, “Fertility, Family, and Social Policy in Contemporary Western Europe,” pp. 729-739.
10 Linda Hantrais, “Exploring Relationships between Social Policy and Changing Family Forms within the European Union,” pp. 339-379. For Wu Fan’s systematic analysis of European family policy and fertility change, see Wu Fan, “European Family Policy and Fertility Change: And the Risks in China’s Low Fertility Trap.”
11 Ronald R. Rindfuss and Minja Kim Choe, eds., “Low and Lower Fertility: Variations across Developed Countries.”
12 Gavin W. Jones and Wajihah Hamid, “Singapore’s Pro-Natalist Policies: To What Extent Have They Worked?”. In Ronald R. Rindfuss and Minja Kim Choe, eds., Low and Lower Fertility: Variations across Developed Countries, pp. 33-61.
13 Thomas Anderson and Hans-Peter Kohler, “Low Fertility, Socioeconomic Development, and Gender Equity,” pp. 381-407.
14 Ronald R. Rindfuss and Karin L. Brewster, “Childrearing and Fertility,” pp. 258-289; Karin L. Brewster and Ronald R. Rindfuss, “Fertility and Women’s Employment in Industrialized Nations,” pp. 271-296; Thomas A. DiPrete, S. Philip Morgan, Henriette Engelhardt and Hana Pacalova, “Do Cross- national Differences in the Costs of Children Generate Cross-national Differences in Fertility Rates?”, pp. 439-477.
15 Karin L. Brewster and Ronald R. Rindfuss, “Fertility and Women’s Employment in Industrialized Nations,” pp. 271-296.
16 Jean-Claude Chesnais, “Fertility, Family, and Social Policy in Contemporary Western Europe,” pp. 729-739.
17 Karen Oppenheim Mason, “Gender and Demographic Change: What Do We Know?”, pp. 158-182.
18 Peter McDonald, “Gender Equity, Social Institutions and the Future of Fertility,” pp. 1-16.
19 Peter McDonald, “Gender Equity in Theories of Fertility Transition,” pp. 427-439.
20 Peter McDonald, “Demographic Life Transitions: An Alternative Theoretical Paradigm,” pp. 385- 392.
21 Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung, The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home.
22 Paula England, “The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled,” pp. 149-166.
23 Wu Fan, “European Family Policy and Fertility Change: Also on the Risk of China’s Low Fertility
24 Melinda Mills, Ronald R. Rindfuss, Peter McDonald, and Egbert te Velde, “Why Do People Postpone Parenthood? Reasons and Social Policy Incentives,” pp. 848-860.
25 Anne H. Gauthier, “The Impact of Family Policies on Fertility in Industrialized Countries: A Review of the Literature,” pp. 323-346; Anne H. Gauthier, “Social Norms, Institutions, and Policies in Low-Fertility Countries,” pp. 11-30; Olivier Thévenon and Anne H. Gauthier, “Family Policies in Developed Countries: A ‘Fertility-booster’ with Side-effects,” pp. 197-216.