The Deepening of Gender-based Division of Labor under the Three-child Policy

Abstract

As China has accomplished a successful market transition over the last four decades, the Chinese governments fertility policies also continuously change in order to serve productivity needs. After the implementation of the one-child policy for decades, the government issued the two-child policy and the three-child policy in a short period of time. The three-child policy has gained much attention in contemporary Chinese society. Existing literature has made great contributions to analyzing the rationale and effectiveness of the implementation of the policy. However, to date, little attention has been paid to the role conflicts and dilemmas encountered by child-bearing women under the three-child policy. By employing interviews, online posts, and videos from Chinese social media such as weibo and xiaohongshu, and making great use of research results from previous academic papers, the study examines the three ways in which the implementation of the three-child policy has strengthened the gender-based division of labor in todays China.