China’s Low Fertility Rate from the Perspective of Gender and Development

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 workfamily 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.

Childbearing intention and childbearing behavior in low fertility society: evidence from Shanghai

Exploring the patterns of population change under low fertility is a historical mis­sion for demographic research in the 21st century.Taking Shanghai as an example,this paper discusses the new patterns and characteristics of people’s childbearing intention and behavior under low fertility settings.The results show that Shanghai,as a typical society with ultra-low fertility,people’s childbearing intention and be­havior demonstrate the characteristics such as“downward inconsistency”between childbearing intention and childbearing behavior,“convergence”of childbearing intention and childbearing behavior between different sub-groups,“inversion”in childbearing intention and childbearing behavior with education and income,and the“decoupling”between marriage and childbearing.The childbearing intention and behavior of low fertility society as seen in the case of Shanghai show the pat­terns as somehow different from what was observed in a high fertility society.It suggests that many of the childbearing patterns shown in the high-fertility era may not necessarily be applicable in low fertility settings,and urges more research to be carried out in this regard.