Women’s Vulnerability and State Responsibility in China’s Family-planning Policy

Abstract

Reproductive vulnerability is a pervasive social issue that requires efforts from multiple government departments and social groups to solve. However, China has traditionally focused on the reproduction function of the family and marginalized women's reproductive autonomy and related rights. Based on the overview of the existing literature, we have a better understanding of the fertility experience of Chinese women when facing the fertility policy, focusing on their continued harm, neglect and vulnerability during the process of changes in the fertility policy. Through research, we can not only analyze the work-family dilemma that women have been in for a long time but also an in-depth analysis of low fertility intentions of Chinese women under the pronatalism policy. The vulnerability of Chinese women to childbearing is caused by the following factors: women’s socio-economic status, the concept of marriage and childbirth in society, the control of the national fertility policy, and the availability of fertility support system arrangements. We suggest the amendment of the family-planning policy should be accompanied by a series of arrangements for family support, such as establishing a reproduction-friendly environment, promoting social gender consciousness in all aspects, reducing women's household burden, and actively eliminating gender discrimination in the workplace. Then, women's reproductive vulnerability can be mitigated, and the gender structure can be balanced.