The Demographic Masculinization of China: Hoping for a Son

210 Pages·2013·2.07 MB·English

by  Isabelle Attané (auth.)

INED Population Studies 1
Isabelle Attané
The Demographic
Masculinization of
China
Hoping for a Son
The Demographic Masculinization of China
INED Population Studies
Volume 1
Editors
Eric Brian and Jean-Marc Rohrbasser
Editorial Advisory Board
Isabelle Attané, Didier Breton, Youssef Courbage, Olivia Ekert-Jaffé, Cécile Lefèvre,
Godelieve Masuy-Stroobant, Wilfried Rault, Arnaud Régnier-Loilier, Claudine
Sauvain-Dugerdil
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Isabelle Attané

The Demographic
Masculinization of China
Hoping for a Son
Translation (cid:129) Madeleine Grieve, Krystyna Horko
Copy editing (cid:129) Catriona Dutreuilh
Isabelle Attané
Institut national d’études démographiques
133 boulevard Davout
75980 Paris Cedex 20
France
ISSN 2214-2452 ISSN 2214-2460 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-00235-4 ISBN 978-3-319-00236-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-00236-1
Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013939579
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Contents
Part I Visible Demographic Discrimination
1 Overview .................................................................................................. 3
1.1 An Atypical Demographic Trend ..................................................... 4
1.1.1 The Demographic Masculinization of China ....................... 4
1.1.2 Forty Million Missing Women? ........................................... 6
1.2 Inequality in Life Expectancy .......................................................... 8
1.2.1 Recent Trends in Chinese Mortality .................................... 8
1.2.2 Women at a Disadvantage in Terms
of Mean Length of Life ........................................................ 10
2 Why Are There More Boys Than Girls? ............................................... 13
2.1 A Masculinization of Births ............................................................. 13
2.1.1 Biological Norms ................................................................. 13
2.1.2 The Elimination of Daughters, an Ancestral Practice .......... 15
2.1.3 Abnormal Excess Masculinity at Birth
Simultaneous with a Decline in Fertility ............................. 17
2.1.4 The Gender Imbalance: Contrasting Trends ........................ 19
2.1.5 A Growing Defi cit of Female Births .................................... 22
2.2 A Feminization of Infant Deaths ...................................................... 25
2.2.1 Persistent Excess Female Infant Mortality .......................... 27
2.2.2 The Contribution of Infant Mortality
to the Female Defi cit in 1990 and 2000 ............................... 33
3 A Geography of Discrimination ............................................................. 35
3.1 Disparities Between Urban and Rural Areas
in the Treatment of Girls .................................................................. 35
3.1.1 An Even More Widespread Phenomenon
in Rural Areas ...................................................................... 35
3.1.2 Lower Excess Mortality of Baby Girls in Urban Areas ....... 39
v
vi Contents
3.2 Variations Between Provinces ........................................................ 42
3.2.1 A Generalized Masculinization of Births ........................ 42
3.2.2 Excess Female Infant Mortality Varies
Between Provinces ........................................................... 45
4 Discrimination Against Girls in Early Childhood................................ 51
4.1 More and More Boys ..................................................................... 51
4.2 Declining but Persistent Excess Female Child Mortality .............. 54
5 Life-Long Inequality ............................................................................... 59
5.1 The Percentage of Men in the Adult Population ............................ 59
5.2 A Mortality Regime Skewed Against Women ............................... 60
5.3 Excess Female Mortality in Early Adulthood,
a Cause of the Female Defi cit? ...................................................... 66
Appendices .............................................................................................. 70
Appendix 5.1: Maternal Mortality ............................................... 70
Appendix 5.2: Women and Suicide .............................................. 72
Appendix 5.3: Female-to-Male Ratio of the Probabilities
of Dying in Different Age Groups at a Given Level
of Male Life Expectancy at Birth in Various Countries ............... 73
6 A Phenomenon Not Unique to China .................................................... 75
6.1 Asia, the Most Masculine Continent in the World ......................... 75
6.1.1 A Specifi c Culture? .......................................................... 75
6.1.2 The World’s Most Populous Countries
Also Have the Highest Male Surplus ............................... 77
6.2 The Shortage of Girls, an Asian Pandemic? .................................. 77
6.2.1 A Situation Encountered in All the Large
Asian Countries… ........................................................... 77
6.2.2 … and Spreading to Other Parts of the Continent ........... 80
6.2.3 Families’ Choices ............................................................. 80
6.3 Contrasting Situations in Different Countries ................................ 82
6.3.1 Excess Female Mortality in Several Asian Countries ...... 82
6.3.2 Neglect of Daughters: A Recurrent Practice .................... 84
6.4 Deeply Patriarchal Asian Societies ................................................ 85
6.4.1 Preference to Sons Over Daughters ................................. 85
6.4.2 Religion ............................................................................ 87
Part II A System of Norms and Values that Favours Males
7 The Status of Women in Traditional Chinese Society .......................... 91
7.1 “Women Are Inferior to Men” ....................................................... 92
7.1.1 A Confucian Tradition ..................................................... 92
7.1.2 Yin and Yang .................................................................... 93
Contents vii
7.2 The Patrilocal Marriage Tradition .................................................. 94
7.2.1 The Wife’s Submission to Her In-Laws ........................... 94
7.2.2 A Patriarchal Clan System ............................................... 95
7.3 Perpetuating the Family Line and Ancestor Worship .................... 96
7.3.1 A Fundamental Duty ........................................................ 96
7.3.2 The Fertility Cult.............................................................. 97
8 Women, Feminism and Femininity ........................................................ 99
8.1 From Nascent Feminism to the Beijing Conference ...................... 99
8.1.1 The Pre-revolutionary Period ........................................... 99
8.1.2 Women Under the Communist Regime ........................... 100
8.1.3 The Gender Issue and the Beijing Conference ................ 103
8.1.4 Representations of Chinese Womanhood ......................... 106
8.2 The Chinese Government’s Response to Discrimination
Against Girls and Women .............................................................. 109
8.2.1 What the Chinese Law Says ............................................ 109
8.2.2 The “Care for Girls” Campaign ....................................... 112
Appendix ................................................................................................. 114
Five Pilot Implementations of the “Care for Girls”
Campaign ..................................................................................... 114
9 Persistent Social and Economic Disparities .......................................... 119
9.1 Access to Education and Employment
as a Factor of Inequality ................................................................. 119
9.1.1 Discrimination in Schooling ............................................ 120
9.1.2 Gender Inequality in Employment ................................... 123
9.2 The Preference for Sons in Post-reform China .............................. 126
9.2.1 Socioeconomic Factors .................................................... 126
9.2.2 Persistent High Family Expectations for Sons ................. 130
10 Discriminatory Practices and Factors in Masculinization .................. 135
10.1 The Under-Reporting of Births ...................................................... 135
10.1.1 Several Million Girls May Not Have
Been Reported at Birth… ................................................ 135
10.1.2 … But Boys Too............................................................... 137
10.1.3 Under-Reporting of Girls Has Little Impact
on the Gender Imbalance ................................................. 140
10.2 Sex-Selective Abortion ................................................................... 140
10.2.1 Prenatal Sex Determination ............................................. 140
10.2.2 Choosing Sex-Selective Abortion .................................... 142
10.3 Sex-Selective Infanticide and Abandonment ................................. 144
10.3.1 Age-Old Tradition ............................................................ 145
10.3.2 Female Infanticide Is Less Common,
But Has Not Completely Disappeared ............................. 146
10.3.3 Abandonment as a “Last Resort” ..................................... 147
viii Contents
10.4 Neglect of Girls .............................................................................. 149
10.4.1 Excess Mortality Mainly Affects Infant Girls… ............. 150
10.4.2 … Especially if They Are Youngest Daughters ................ 152
10.4.3 The Weight of the Family Context ................................... 154
10.4.4 Unequal Access to Medical Care ..................................... 155
10.4.5 Are Infant Girls Less Well Fed? ....................................... 157
11 Familial and Socioeconomic Reasons Behind Discrimination ............ 161
11.1 A Typology of Determinants .......................................................... 162
11.1.1 Fertility and Discrimination:
A Complex Relationship .................................................. 164
11.1.2 Studying the Social and Family Context .......................... 166
11.2 An Attempt at Explanation ............................................................. 169
11.2.1 Education as an Ambivalent Variable ............................... 170
11.2.2 A Specifi c Demographic Transition ................................. 171
Appendix ................................................................................................... 172
Total Fertility Rate and Fertility Imposed
by the Birth Control Programme in Chinese
Provinces in 1990s and 2000s ........................................................ 172
12 Conclusion: What Demographic Perspectives
for China and the World? ....................................................................... 173
12.1 Demographic Masculinization: A New Economic
and Social Challenge? .................................................................... 173
12.2 Other Examples Around the World ................................................ 174
12.3 A Shortage of Wives ...................................................................... 175
12.4 What Impact on the Status of Women? .......................................... 177
12.5 A Textbook Case that Affects One-Third
of the World’s Population............................................................... 180
References ........................................................................................................ 181
References in English and French ............................................................. 181
References in Chinese ............................................................................... 190
Statistical Sources ..................................................................................... 192
Online Databases ...................................................................................... 193
Index ................................................................................................................. 195
Introduc tion
The second half of the twentieth century was a period of major upheaval in China.
The Communist takeover in 1949 brought political and economic transformation
aimed at social equality. The subsequent liberal reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping
in 1978 completely overhauled the agricultural and industrial production system
and brought profound social change. Since then, China has moved gradually from a
planned, centralized economy to a “socialist market economy”, a transition that
has driven unprecedented economic growth. Gross domestic product has expanded
rapidly since the 1980s, while remarkable productivity gains generated by eco-
nomic reform have resulted in substantial purchasing power gains and a decline in
overall poverty.
However, by shaking up the whole social organization, the dismantling of
collective production structures has wrought changes that extend far beyond the
economic sphere. Previously, people depended closely on the state for all aspects of
their day- to-day lives. Through their work units, everyone had guaranteed access to
employment, housing, healthcare and education for their children. City dwellers
were also entitled to pensions and welfare benefi ts. However, since those services
have gradually been transferred to the private sector, they now respond to market
forces, which means that access to them is increasingly unequal. The healthcare
system has deteriorated, access to basic education and employment is no longer
guaranteed; and unemployment, job insecurity, poverty and social inequality are
spreading. China has thus become one of the most unequal countries in developing
Asia. Inequality is now higher in China than in Indonesia, Pakistan and even India.
“The inequality [in China] is comparable to the United States, a country that has
always emphasized freedom over equality and has never made a secret of its ethos
of rewarding work, talent and merit” (Chesnais 2002).
China’s economic liberalization has been accompanied by social liberalization,
as individuals have become emancipated from the state control that was exercised
through collective bodies. This has led to a revival of behaviours and practices from
the past, some of which had been fi ercely combated by Mao Zedong’s regime.
In particular, gender inequality in access to education and employment, domestic
ix