Summary
In the article “China's most
populous province legislates to curb gender imbalance,” Xinhua News Agency
describes China’s problem with gender imbalance and shows us the solution. The
news agency believes the problem towards gender imbalance problem in China is caused
by sex selective abortions due to the fact of the one child policy. The article
states that Boys are preferred over girls in China because they are seen to be
the primary breadwinners in the family. The author stated “Chinas fifth
population census in 2000 showed the ratio between newborn boys and girls in
Henan was 118.46:100, considerably higher than the normal ratio of
103-107:100.” China’s population ratio of boys to girls is dramatically
increasing and the author believes in the next ten years men from the age of 20
to 34 will outnumber women their same age by 10 million. The author stated “about
ten percent of boys born in 1990s would not find a spouse.” In order to prevent
this from happening China’s government is creating a campaign called “caring
for girls.” This campaign will provide around 75 U.S. dollars to daughter only
families if the parents are over the age of 60 .Finally the author believes the
Chinese government will bring the newborn gender ratio back to normal by 2016
through the institution of similar programs.
Works
Cited
"1st Ld-China Focus: China's most Populous
Province Legislates to Curb Gender Imbalance."
Xinhua News Agency 29
Sep. 2006: n. pag. ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.
Essay#1 Human Rights and Women
Gender Imbalance in China
Many
might believe China’s one-child policy is helping the country balance their
population but little do they know the policy is actually hurting China. The
one-child policy is hurting families by only allowing couples to have one child
with some minor exceptions. Due to families only being allowed to have one
child, families prefer boys over girls because they are seen to be the primary
breadwinners in a family and are the ones who will take care of their family in
the future. Since boys are preferred
over girls, some women are receiving illegal sonograms to determine whether
their child is a boy or a girl. Even though China has
banned sonogram tests to determine the fetus gender many women still tend to
get illegal sonograms. If the child is a girl, some mothers choose to have an abortion because of the preference of a
male child (especially since they are only allowed one child) .The one-child
policy has caused many women to choose to have a sex selective abortion which
has resulted in a major imbalance in ratio of men to women. The solution
towards solving China’s gender imbalance problem is convincing the Chinese people
that females can also be seen as breadwinners.
The one-child
policy was produced in 1979 to limit China’s population growth because China
had trouble feeding its population. China’s
one-child policy lowered the population by around 250 million. Even though the
policy helped reduce China’s population it has also dramatically hurt China. The
one-child policy was implemented to lower China’s population below 1.2 billion
before the year 2000, but it failed. Now China has over 1.3 billion people in their
country (Wiseman).Since the policy limits most couples to one child many
families prefer the child to be a boy because boys are seen to be more valuable
than girls, as they are believed to be the primary breadwinners in the family. Moreover,
traditionally it has been the responsibility of the male offspring to take care
of their parents in their old age, which has contributed to the preference for
male children.
Thus, in order to ensure that couples have a
male child, many women choose to have a sex selective abortion, which has
skewed the gender balance. China has around a 119 boys born for every 100 girls
in their population (Ching-Ching Ni).There are an estimated 40 million more men
than women in China (Ching-Ching Ni). This gender gap will result in men not
being to be able to find wives and marry. In the article “China's birth limits
create dangerous gender gap,” Alexa Olesen states, “The imbalance is expected
to steadily worsen among people of childbearing age over the next two decades
and could trigger a slew of social problems, including a possible spike in
crime by young men unable to find female partners.” Due to men not being able
to marry, many women will be rapped and abducted by these single men and this will
cause chaos in China.
In order to
prevent sex selective abortions, the Chinese government has made it more
difficult to obtain a sonogram. Doctors are not allowed to tell parents whether
there fetus is male or female (Ching-Ching Ni). In the article “China starts
campaign against sex-selective abortions,” the BBC Worldwide Limited stated
“efforts will be made to raise awareness of gender equality, to severely punish
those involved in cases of non-medical sex determinations and sex-selective
abortions, and to strengthen monitoring.” The BBC reports that the government
will penalize or strip doctors of their medical licenses if they don’t follow
the law against illegal sonogram tests. However, even though China has banned sonogram
tests to determine the fetus' gender, there are many illegal ways people find
out if they are having a boy or a girl (Olesen). Ching-Ching Ni believes it is
very easy to determine a fetus gender by simply a glance of the eye or a
gesture of the hand from the doctor.
Therefore, in order to combat this
problem, the Chinese government has started a nationwide “caring for girls”
campaign, which they believe will help close the gender gap between boys to
girls in the next three to five years (Xinhua News Agency). In the
article"1st Ld-China Focus: China's most Populous Province Legislates to
Curb Gender Imbalance," the Xinhua News Agency asserts “Daughter-only
families will receive an annual allowance of 600 yuan (75 U.S. dollars) if the
parents are over 60 years old and will also get preferential loans to help with
agricultural production.” The government
believes this campaign will be effective by bribing couples to have female
babies by providing an annual allowance of 600 yuan. By using this campaign the government believes
it can bring down the newborn male to female ratio back to normal by 2016.
Besides China,
Korea also has a very high percentage of male to female ratio in their
population. Unlike China, Korea resolved their problem by changing their
cultures beliefs on females. In the article “Gender Crisis” Robert Kiener
asserts “The heavily skewed ratios prompted the government to ban prenatal
gender selection. To underscore its concern, officials launched media campaigns
designed to raise the status of females. For instance, the Love Your Daughter
campaign featured the slogan, “One daughter raised well is worth 10 sons!” Instead
of having the one-child policy China should start campaigns like Korea to
convince their culture that females are also seen to be valuable. The campaigns
that Korea used made big impacts towards their cultures beliefs. A survey in
2010 stated that Koreans prefer to have a female child instead of a male.
Nearly 38
percent of Korean mothers wanted a daughter, compared to 31 percent who wanted
a son and 37 percent of fathers wanted a daughter compared to 29 percent who
wanted a son (Kiener). The one-child policy is hurting China more than it is
helping because it is resulting in women getting sex-selective abortions. China
does not need the policy anymore and the government needs to change Chinas
cultural beliefs on females by launching media campaigns.
China
needs to remove their one-child policy and start changing their cultures
beliefs on females. Taking into consideration Korea also had a major gender
imbalance problem and Korea was able to find a solution to their problem
without having to use the one-child policy. The policy has created a major
gender imbalance between men and women and has results in women getting illegal
abortions when they have baby girls due to favoring boys. Therefore the solution
to solving China’s gender imbalance is simply removing the one-child policy and
staring campaigns to change their cultures beliefs on women.
Works
Cited
"1st Ld-China Focus: China's most
Populous Province Legislates to Curb Gender Imbalance."
Xinhua
News Agency 29 Sep. 2006: n.
pag. ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 13 Feb.
2013 .
"China Starts Campaign Against
"Sex-Selective" Abortions." BBC
Monitoring Asia
Pacific
16 Aug. 2011: n. pag. ProQuest Newsstand.
Web. 18 Feb. 2013.
Ching-Ching Ni. "The World; China
Confronts its Daunting Gender Gap; Officials Seek
Corrective
Measures as a One-Child Policy and a Preference for Male Offspring Mean Men Now
significantly Outnumber Women." Los
Angeles Times 21 Jan. 2005: n. pag. ProQuest
Newsstand. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.
Olesen, Alexa. "China's Birth
Limits Create Dangerous Gender Gap." The
Brattleboro
Reformer
11
Apr. 2009: n. pag. ProQuest Newsstand.
Web. 13 Feb. 2013
Wiseman, Paul. "China's 'Little
Emperors': The Offspring of Policy One-Child Rule has Lowered
Population,
Raised Problems." USA TODAY 23 Feb. 2000: n. pag. ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.
Kiener, R. “Gendercide crisis.” CQ Global Researcher 4 Oct. 2011.Web. 22
Feb. 2013.
YouTube Video On Gender Imbalance
-Short video on the gender imbalance in China and how men are struggling to find a spouse.
Images on China's Gender Imbalance
-This is a picture that shows a Chinese women that has multiple options of men to choose from.
