Introduction
This paper analyzes the gender attitudes of contemporary Chinese young people and the influence of different gender attitudes on individual fertility intention. Ancient times, there has been a saying in Chinese culture that "men lead the outside while women lead the inside". In addition, there are "three 'from'” : "at home from the father, married from the husband, old from the son" is also usually interpreted as the woman must depend on the man. Historical cultures, war is often seen as appropriate (or only) for men, and child care is usually (or only) for women. However, such a definition has some ambiguity throughout, like the movie MuLan. In pre-industrial Europe, medicine was often considered a male privilege. But in Russia, health care is often considered a woman's job. The results of these beliefs can still be seen in modern society, that is, European hospitals are usually dominated by men, while Russian hospitals have many female doctors. Now, in China, it is not uncommon for men lead the inside and women to be outside. There is even left behind husband and more and more full time fathers.With women's education and job opportunities rising, the gender roles in China are changing. In the process of economic growth, women obtained higher education and participated more in the labor force. However, men tend to be much slower to get involved in housework and child care (Kato, 2018).
Due to transformation in the public sector (i.e. in the private sector (e.g., employment) and non-transformation (e.g., employment), women, especially those with higher education, may hesitate to marry and have children when they risk losing their jobs and incomes. Therefore, women may wait for the right time in order to maintain their autonomy, resulting in late marriage and late childbearing, or even non-marriage or childlessness (Raymo, 2003).
The global population aging problem is severe and growing rapidly. The aging problem is most obvious in some Western European countries, and most of them are developed countries, such as Japan, Italy, Germany, France and other countries.
China's aging population is becoming more and more serious, and the proportion of children born is decreasing year by year.In 2019, the global population aging problem will be intensified, and China's population aging growth rate will be the first in the world. For today's China, with a large population base and rapid economic development, but less per capita, it also faces the problem of aging population, which has become a resistance to economic development. The fundamental reason for the aging of the population is the reduction of people's desire to have children.
According to the 227 survey results on the fertility intention carried out in China's Population Fertility Intention Change: 1980-2011, the longitudinal change trend of fertility intention was investigated by using the cross-sectional historical meta-analysis method. The results show that since 1980, the number of ideal children in China has been decreasing. After 2000, the average number of ideal children basically stabilized between 1.6-1.8.
The changes and rapid development of the times have brought about changes in China's gender roles, gender equality has always been a social problem in China. Although there have been similar studies in other countries, the research on China only focuses on how the gender role in the family affects the fertility intention, and there is no special research on how the attitudes of gender role affects the fertility intention. In view of the current situation of China, my research objectives are three, to study the gender role attitudess of Chinese young people in different backgrounds, to find out how different gender role attitudes affect fertility intention, to analyzed the results and proposed the intervention methods to improve fertility intention. With these three research purposes, I carried out a research on the impact of gender role attitude on fertility intention in China. Because there is no special study on the relationship between gender role attitude and fertility intention in China. This research can contribute to the research of population aging and gender role in the future, and provide reference for the intervention of population aging in China.
Literature Review
Concept
This study includes two concepts, Gender Role and Fertility Intention. Gender Roles was explained that men are always seen as bossy, powerful, socially defined as aggressive, active, independent, and not good at expressing emotions (Hegstorm&McCarlNielsen, 2002; Maccoby, 1990). Gender division of labor is usually formed in society, with women as the main caregivers and men as protectors and providers of children (Glick, 2016). According to the theory of gender role, the process of gender socialization encourages women to attach great importance to the role of wife and mother, and attach great importance to the emotional component of personal relationship (Bernard, 1972; Gilligan, 1982). Fertility Intention was explained that considered the best indicator of potential behaviour because this concept focuses on the variety of circumstances that may affect fertility behaviour (Miettinen and Szalma, 2014). Gender role change may be one of the important factors leading to the phenomenon of low fertility in developed countries,according to demographic, economic and sociological theories (Esping-Andersen & Billari, 2015). Unforeseen experiences (such as disagreement over reproductive intentions in a partnership, or when the experience of raising a child is not as expected) may lead an individual to change their fertility intentions (Iacovou and Tavares, 2011).
Gender role change in China
In 2010, the time gap between men and women in housework was significantly narrowed compared with 2000 (in 2000, men did 105.1 minutes less housework than women, and in 2010, men did 61.8 minutes less housework than women) (Liu&Li, 2013). According to the gender role theory, the gender meaning of housework is social construction and embedded in the cultural structure (Zuo & bin, l2001). Masculinity used to be associated with not doing housework or doing less housework. People believe that "the more masculine the temperament, the more likely it is not to do or do less housework." It is in the reflection of life taste and family significance that men find that their inner set of masculine norms may bring some harm to themselves and their families, so they are willing to change (Ma, 2019).
Gender role attitudes influence fertility intentions
According to China's research on the willingness of Shaanxi province to have a second child, a more equal gender role attitude is associated with a higher willingness to have a second child (Li & Jiang, 2019). And also found in a study of male fertility and attitudes to male roles in early 21st century Europe, equal gender roles are associated with a stronger desire to have children and a larger number of children in some European countries (Puur, Olah, & Tazi-preve, 2018). In addition, similar findings were found in surveys on the impact of gender role attitudes and fertility intentions on Russian women, research reveals a positive link between an egalitarian view of gender roles and women's reproductive intentions, the survey also found that men's perceptions of their wives' work family conflicts significantly predict men's fertility intentions, even if men's own work family conflicts do not exist, women's own work family conflict or their views on husband's work family conflict can't predict women's fertility intention (Abuladze,Puur & Vseviov, 2018). South Korean studies have shown that the amount of time a husband spends on housework and childcare increases the likelihood of having a second child, while the amount of time a wife spends on housework and childcare every day is not important (Li & Jiang, 2019). It is found from the research on the influence of gender role attitudes on fertility intention in Japan by Kato in 2018, in the public sphere, the preference for sharing the responsibility of family income has always been related to the lower willingness of men and women to have children and the lower number of ideal children, career oriented women may be more willing to avoid marriage and thus fertility (Kato, 2018). According to the results of this Katos’ study, women who tend to participate in housework tend to have lower fertility intention than women who show that housework is a female role. However, men's preference for household responsibilities does not seem to affect their fertility intentions. The number of family responsibilities that Japanese women with equal gender roles expect to bear once they have a child, which may damage their willingness to bear children (Kato, 2018).The study of Italy women's gender role attitude and fertility intention in 2008 found that unequal division of domestic work will only weaken Italy's domestic women's willingness to have children (Demogr, 2008). However, in Demogr study of Finland in 2011, he found that Finnish women's gender role attitudes have nothing to do with their fertility intentions, However, there is a U-shaped relationship between men's attitudes towards gender roles and their willingness to bear; traditional and equal attitudes are more strongly related to their willingness to bear than middle attitudes (Demogr, 2011).
Men and women who tend to be egalitarian tend to face higher risk of uncertainty or lack of willingness to have children, and men's expectations of participating in parenting seem to have a positive impact on their willingness to have children (Kato, 2018). Some studies have found that in some European countries, men's preference to play an equal gender role is related to stronger willingness to have children and a larger number of children (PUR, Olah, Tazi Peve & Dorbritz, 2008). However, there are also studies that refute the view that men's equal gender role attitude is actually related to the small number of children (Westofff & Higgins, 2009).
Hypothesis
Based on my research project and review of previous studies, I put forward the following assumptions in gender role attitude and fertility intention in China. 1, Women who think that men and women should take equal responsibility for family income have lower fertility willingness. 2, Women who think equal distribution of housework between men and women are more likely to have children. 3, Men and women who think that women should be career oriented have low willingness to have children. 4, Both men and women who believe that male advocate outside female advocate inside are both with higher fertility willingness.
Method
This research target population is urban Chinese born between 1985 to 2000 with different personal backgrounds. I collected the sample data by means of online questionnaire and interview, and distributed the questionnaire by means of simple random sampling and snowballing. The online method is more beneficial to the sample of the mobile phone target population, because the target population is relatively young and spends a lot of time on the Internet every day, which makes it easier to get the questionnaire feedback. The method for sampling mobile phones online is also more random, making it more likely that a valid sample will be obtained. Before the participants fill in the online questionnaire, I will write down my research content and purpose in front of the questionnaire, so that the participants can fully understand the research and make the respondents voluntarily accept the questionnaire. Each questionnaire needs 10 minutes.
According to the concept of this study, the questionnaire survey will include participants' attitudes towards gender roles and fertility intentions. In addition, in order to facilitate the intervention of low fertility intentions, there is also a part of personal background. In order to study the differences between people from different backgrounds in the influence of gender views on fertility intention. In the section on background investigation, I set the following questions as Normal Variables, include place of resident, gender, job, marital status, overseas experience, Ordinal Variables include the level of education and the level of Job, number of children in a native family. Through the background investigation of the participants, it is convenient to put forward research suggestions. After the conclusion of what kind of gender role attitude will reduce the fertility intention, it traces back to the possible causes of this gender role attitude to put forward intervention suggestions. In the section on gender role attitudes, I ask the following questions: the proportion of male/female household chores, the proportion of male/female income, the importance of male/female working outside the home, the importance of male/female to children's education, the degree of recognition of the traditional Chinese concept of gender roles in which men work outside and women work inside. Rating is using a five-point mark way. For the problem of proportion, 1 stands for the largest male and the smallest female, 5 stands for the largest female and the smallest male, gradually increasing in the middle, and 3 stands for complete equality. Among the issues of importance and recognition, 1 represents the least important and the least recognized, 5 represents the most important and the most recognized, and the degree increases gradually. This part of the problem can analyze the participants' gender role attitude, whether they think that men and women should be equal, where men and women are equal and where they are unequal, and convenient to come up with the conclusion of what kind of gender concept affects what kind of fertility attitude. In the section of the survey of fertility intention, I will ask the following questions. The number of children you want to have in the future, what do you think will be the main reason to hinder your willingness to have children, and what factors will make you willing to have more than expected children in the future. In the section of the survey of fertility intention, I will ask the following questions: the number of children you want to have in the future, what do you think will be the main reason to hinder your willingness to have children, and what factors will make you willing to have more than expected children in the future. The factors that hinder the birth intention include: family income, the husband's or wife's housework, the husband's or wife's income, the original family, the influence of friends or the Internet, and the low education level. The factors of willingness to change childbearing are: the increase of family income, the increase of self-economy, the increase of housework expenditure of husband or wife, and the help of parents.
Reference
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