The two-child policy and its effect on the career expectations of Chinese female students

The two-child policy and its effect on the career

expectations of Chinese female students

MA: Asian Studies Faculty of Humanities

Leiden University 2018/2019

Thesis supervisor: Dr. S. S. Kharchenkova Submission date: 27/06/2019

Word count: 14.820

Viola Prevoo S1508733 v.j.m.prevoo@umail.leidenuniv.nl

Table of contents

1. Introduction……… 3

2. One-child policy……… 6

2.1 Implementation of the one-child policy………. 6

2.2 Gender equality during the one-child policy……….8

3. Two-child policy………. 14

3.1 From a one-child policy to a two-child policy……… 14

3.2 Increasing the fertility rate………...15

3.3 The two-child policy and gender equality……….17

4. Methodology………. 19

5. Results………. 21

5.1 Gender discrimination and career expectations……….……….. 21

5.2 The family-work conflict and career expectations ..………. 26

5.3 The impact of the two-child policy on fertility intentions………31

5.4 A move towards gender equality………..33

6. Conclusion……….. 34

7. Appendix: Interview Questions ………. 38

1. Introduction

Messages about the newly introduced two-child policy in online publications and on social media are often concerned with the seemingly negative effect the two-child policy has on gender equality, especially on the labour market. According to the Global Gender Gap report of 2017, the Chinese move towards gender equality has slowed down since the

implementation of the two-child policy.1 _{Several online reports discuss how the two-child}

policy has caused increased gender discrimination on the labour market.2 _{Moreover, on online}

platforms Chinese citizens have expressed their worries about the extra stress that having a second child will cause, which they fear will lead to a significant number of women resigning from their job.3 _{These messages suggest that the effect of the two-child policy on gender}

equality in China is a topic that many Chinese citizens are currently concerned with.

The Chinese government introduced the two-child policy in 2016. It replaced the one-child policy which had been in place since 1979. The one-one-child policy had been introduced in

order to slow down the fast population growth that China was going through at that time.4

With the one-child policy the government restricted urban residents and state employees to have no more than one child and encouraged all other couples to do the same. However, there were many exceptions to the one-child policy like rural couples and ethnic minorities, who

were often allowed to have more than one child.5 _{Possible punishment for couples who did}

not live up to the policy included fines and forced abortions.6 _{The Chinese government claims}

that the one-child policy is the main cause of the successful reversal of China’s fast population growth. However, as birth rates already dropped below replacement in the 1990’s, China is now facing new problems. China’s shrinking workforce and rapid aging population caused the government to replace the one-child policy with the so-called two-child policy in 2016.7 _The

government now allows and encourages all couples to have two children, in order to make birth rates rise again.8 _{Whereas China’s family policies, meaning the one-child policy and the}

2 _{Mateer et al, 2018; Qin, 2019.} 3 _{Lu & Zheng, 2017: 100.}

4_{China Development Research Foundation, 2014: 4.}

5 _{China Development Research Foundation, 2014: 7; Burns, 1983: 91.} 6 _{Burns, 1983: 91; Schwank et al., 2018: 646.}

7 _{Zhou, 2018: 2.} 8 _{Attané, 2016: 527.}

two-child policy were aimed to manipulate birth rates, they seem to unintendedly have a significant effect on gender equality in China.

Based on existing literature, it seems that the influence of the two-child policy on women’s careers is closely linked to gender equality. To understand the impact of the switch to the two-child policy on gender equality it is important to have insight in the situation prior to the two-child policy, under the one-child policy. Several scholars argue that the one-child policy has had a negative influence on gender equality in China,9 _{because it for instance had}

a negative impact on the privacy and rights of women, as local governments were allowed to demand information about their menstrual cycles and to intervene in their family planning.10

Other scholars argue that the one-child policy increased gender equality as it led to better education and career opportunities for women.11 _{Overall, most scholars agree that the}

one-child policy has increased gender equality, whereas it is argued that the two-one-child policy has led to a decrease in gender equality. According to most scholars the two-child policy has led to an increase in gender discrimination on the labour market and makes women sacrifice their career in order to have a second child.12

Since the two-child policy has only recently been implemented, there is little evidence yet of its impact on gender equality. Since the implementation of the two-child policy scholars have mainly focussed on the possible long-term effects of the two-child policy on Chinese society;13 _{the desire of people to have a second child since the implementation of the}

two-child policy;14 _{and on online discourse on the two-child policy.}15 _{One scholar that has already}

looked into the effect of the two-child policy on gender equality is Cooke. He established in 2017 that the two-child policy has a serious effect on the career opportunities of university graduates. In his research he mainly focusses on discrimination in recruitment strategies and the increased unemployment rate of female university graduates since the implementation of the two-child policy.16 _{Zhou studied fertility intentions and attitudes towards the two-child}

policy amongst people of childbearing age.17 _{One of Zhou’s findings is that attitudes towards}

9 _{Keng, 1997: 209; Shalev, 2001: 144; Sun, 2016: 1.} 10 _{Keng, 1997: 209.}

11 _{Zeng & Hesketh, 2016: 1931; Lee, 2012: 51; Cooke, 2017: 228.}

12 _{Cooke, 2017: 242; Attané, 2016: 531; Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1231; Zhou, 2018: 3.} 13 _{Sun, 2016: 2.}

14 _{Attané, 2016: 531; Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1231; Zhou, 2018: 3.} 15 _{Liu et al, 2016: 231; Lu & Zheng, 2017: 100.}

16 _{Cooke, 2017: 242.} 17 _{Zhou, 2018: 3.}

the introduction of the two-child policy are strongly affected by gender equality in both the private and public sphere.18 _{Wang and Hesketh did a similar research about fertility intentions}

since the switch to the two-child policy, and found that women worry about having to sacrifice their career when deciding to have a second child.19

Whereas these scholars have either left out the attitudes of women towards the impact of the two-child policy on their career or have mainly focussed on their attitudes in the context of fertility intentions, I focus on the attitudes of Chinese female students towards the impact of the two-child policy on their future career expectations. To address this issue, I conducted in-depth interviews with 10 Chinese female students, studying in the Netherlands. The respondents to the interviews are all highly educated and on average fairly wealthy, which makes it a specific but also interesting group to study, that has not yet been studied for a similar research. My research will be among the first to assess the views of Chinese women who do not yet plan to start a family towards the implementation of the two-child policy. Moreover, it is the first to my knowledge to discuss how Chinese female students feel they are affected by the two-child policy and how this has changed their expectations for their future career. I want to compare and contrast the findings of my research with the existing literature and give new insight in the views of Chinese female students on the two-child policy and the effects it has on their career expectations.

I will start with addressing the discussions in existing literature on China’s family planning policies. In chapter 2, I discuss the one-child policy and how it has affected gender equality. Chapter 3 focusses on the two-child policy; the scholarly debate on its effectiveness in increasing birth rates and its impact on gender equality. In chapter 4, I set out my methodology after which I will discuss my results in chapter 5. Finally, in the conclusion I argue that the switch to the two-child policy has affected the career expectations of this group of women mainly due to increased gender discrimination and the stereotypical gender roles, which cause women to carry the burden of raising a second child. Furthermore, I argue that the extent to which these women expect the two-child policy to influence their future career depends on the field they want to work in and on the number of children they expect to have. Since I also argue that the desire to have a second child is related to career expectations, I

therefore address the issue of the desire to have a second child of this particular group of female students.

2. One-child Policy

2.1 Implementation of the one-child policy

In order to understand why the switch to the two-child policy has changed the career expectations of my research group of female students, I will first look into the situation prior to the two-child policy when there was a so-called one-child policy. As previously mentioned, the one-child policy was the government’s response to the rapidly growing population of China since the 1960’s.20 _{The rapid growth of the population put pressure on the}

socioeconomic situation in China, as it led to difficulties in schooling children, providing people with housing and providing people with jobs and food.21 _{In 1973, the government first}

tried to limit the population growth by promoting birth control, and motivating people to

have fewer children.22 _{It started the wan, xi, shao (晩，稀，少) campaign, which translates to}

later, longer, fewer.23 _{It encouraged people to start having children later, to have longer}

intervals between children and to have fewer children. However, the results of this campaign did not yet satisfy the Chinese government. In order to make the population growth decline even faster, the government introduced the one-child policy in 1979. All couples that were urban residents or state employees were now restricted to bear no more than one child.24 _The

government encouraged all other couples to also have one child only, but it was more lenient towards rural residents and ethnic minorities.25 _{Couples were encouraged to stay in line with}

the one-child policy by receiving a bonus and social benefits for promising to have one child only.26 _{Couples who gave birth to a second child without having the permission to do so had}

to pay back this bonus and had to pay an additional fine.27 _{Couples were further discouraged}

to have a second child by the fact that an out of plan second child could not be registered, unless its parents paid a fine.28 _{Moreover, all the children of a couple with an out of plan child}

20_{China Development Research Foundation, 2014: 4.} 21_Ibid.

22 _{China Development Research Foundation, 2014: 6.} 23 _{Cai, 2010: 420.}

24 _{China Development Research Foundation, 2014: 11.} 25 _{China Development Research Foundation, 2014: 7.} 26 _{Burns, 1983: 91.}

27 _Ibid.

lost social benefits. This meant that single children would get access to hospital treatment and public schooling before non-single children would.29

In urban areas there was little protest against the newly implemented policy. This was mainly the result of the fast-economic development that urban areas, especially those along the east-coast of China were facing at that time.30 _{Because of this economic development}

labour opportunities increased quickly and the opportunity costs of having a child increased as well. As a result, urban couples were quite willing to have fewer children.31 _{However the}

economic development hardly affected rural parts of China. In rural areas having children and especially having sons was still a great necessity, as children helped to carry out manual labour and were responsible for taking care of their parents when they got older.32 _The

government acknowledged this difference in the need for children and decided to leave it up to each provincial government to set up its own birth control regulations.33 _{This for instance}

meant that provinces were allowed to decide when couples qualified as exceptions to the one-child policy. In the most restrictive provinces like for example Jiangsu, both rural and urban couples were restricted to one child only.34 _{Whereas most provinces applied a more relaxed}

implementation of the two-child policy on rural couples. 35 _{In Zhejiang province for instance,}

rural couples whose first child was a girl were allowed to have a second child.36

Although provincial governments could decide on their own birth planning regulations, the central government set birth planning targets for each province. If a province failed to meet these targets, regional officials risked facing sanctions and having to pay fines.37

In order to meet the targets, the number of exceptions to the one-child policy was kept low and except for ethnic minorities no couple was allowed more than two children.38 _Local

officials were able to keep track of possible pregnancies in their area as they were allowed to demand women to share information on their menstrual cycle.39 _{Since the resistance against}

the one-child policy remained stronger in rural areas than in urban areas, provinces applied

31 _Ibid.

32 _{Shalev, 2001: 137.}

33 _{Basten & Jiang, 2014: 494.} 34 _{Cai, 2010: 425.} 35 _{Shalev, 2001: 132.} 36 _{Cai, 2010: 426.} 37 _{Shalev, 2001: 135; Cai, 2010: 423.} 38 _{Shalev, 2001: 135.} 39 _{Keng, 1997: 209.}

stricter methods in rural areas in order to meet the birth planning targets.40 _{While urban}

residents would ofte voluntarily use contraceptives and have abortions, women in rural areas were less willing to do so and were therefore more often subjected to forced abortions and sterilisations.41 _{In some rural areas special mobile teams were set up, which would visit rural}

villages and force all women who had already given birth to the maximum allowed number of children into abortion or sterilisation.42 _{If women would go into hiding to escape the forced}

abortion or sterilisation, the mobile teams would imprison their family members until they showed up again.43

According to the Chinese government, the introduction of the one-child policy and its implementation has successfully prevented 400 million births by the end of the 20th _century.44

Whether this claim is true is debated by western scholars, who do not trust these calculations.45 _{However, more certain is that China’s fertility rate has been below replacement}

level since the 1990’s. In 2010 the fertility rate was estimated as low as 1.5 children per woman.46 _{The Chinese government claims that this successful decrease of the fertility rate has}

been important in preventing global problems of overpopulation and in fighting the global climate change.47 _{Besides, it argues that the one-child policy has been an important factor in}

China’s economic growth over the past few decades.48 _{However, the one-child policy has also}

led to rapid population aging and a shrinking labour force which is likely to cause economic stagnation.49 _{This finally caused the government to put an end to the one-child policy.}

2.2 Gender equality during the one-child policy

Apart from having the intended effect on China’s birth rates, the one-child policy has also unexpectedly had a great impact on gender equality. Many scholars argue that the one-child policy has led to more gender equality and increased career opportunities for women. Since all respondents to my research grew up under the one-child policy, its effect on gender equality especially on the labour market, is likely to have affected their career expectations

for the future. However, there are also respondents who argue that the one-child policy has led to severe gender discrimination.

Before going into the positive effect of the one-child policy on gender equality and on the labour opportunities of women, it is important to address the arguments that claim the one-child policy has had a negative impact on gender equality. Sun for instance, argues that the very idea of limiting the number of children a couple can have is against women’s reproductive rights.50 _{Keng suggests that the fact that women were demanded to share}

information about their menstrual cycle is a way of privacy invasion.51 _{Moreover, the}

enforcement of abortions and sterilisation is highly criticised. Keng and Shalev both suggest that these forced treatments came with health risks for the women that had to undergo them.52 _{According to Shalev, these treatments were in some cases performed by unskilled}

workers and under unhygienic conditions.53 _{Besides, abortions were often carried out in late}

stages of pregnancy which could result in pelvic infections and heavy menstruation.54 _Shalev

argues that these treatments led to both physical and mental health problems among women.55 _{The taking away of the right to reproduce, the invasion of privacy and the forced}

physical treatments that women had to undergo are clearly all arguments that the one-child policy had a negative effect on gender equality.

Furthermore, the issue of son preference in China has also caused the one-child policy to have a negative effect on gender equality. The strong preference for sons over daughters in the Chinese culture has led to the abandonment and infanticide of new-born girls since the introduction of the one-child policy.56 _{Shalev states that the son preference has also led to}

many sex-selective abortions, even though these are forbidden by law.57 _{As a result of both}

the infanticide of girls and the sex-selective abortions there is now a shortage of women in China, which again has a negative impact on gender equality. According to Keng, the skewed sex ratio has led to an increase in the kidnapping and selling of women as wives and prostitutes.58 _{Besides, Shalev explains that due to the son preference many couples who kept}

their new-born daughter decided not to register the child. 59 _{In this way couples avoided}

having to pay fines and losing social benefits for all their children when having another child against the policy, which they often would want to have as they desired to also have a son. Shalev argues that this also has led to gender discrimination, since girls often did not have access to health care and public schooling, as the result of not being registered.60

Having looked into the negative effects of the one-child policy on gender equality, I will now discuss the positive effects it has had on gender equality. In contrast to Shalev, Lee argues that the one-child policy has led to more equal access to social services like health care and education for boys and girls.61 _{He has established that only-child girls receive greater}

support of their parents than girls who have to compete with siblings, especially if these are male siblings.62 _{Fong argues in agreement with Lee, that thanks to the lack of male siblings,}

girls started to receive a more equal treatment to boys after the implementation of the one-child policy.63 _{Since most of the respondents to my research are only-child girls, they are likely}

to have been affected by this and to have had similar education opportunities to boys. That the education level of women has risen since the one-child policy is reflected by the Cai’s data on the education of women. These data show that by the year 2000, most women of childbearing age, who all grew up during the implementation of the one-child policy, had

finished primary school.64 _{Moreover nearly 80 percent of these women had been to middle}

school.65 _{The increase in education among Chinese women in the late 20}th _{century, can partly}

be explained by the economic development that was seen during that period.66 _However,

according to Lee, Fong and Cai, the increased opportunities for girls as the result of the one-child policy is the main cause of this increase in education.67

Besides increasing access to social services, it is also argued that the one-child policy has increased career opportunities for women. Lee for instance claims that the fact that the level of education among women was lifted resulted in an increase in career opportunities.68

Moreover, Zeng argues that the low fertility rate that was caused by the one-child policy led

65 _{Cai, 2010: 429; Lee, 2012: 51; Fong, 2002: 1098.} 66 _{Fong, 2002: 1098.}

67 _{Lee, 2012: 51.} 68 _Ibid.

to less competition on the labour market, which he argues caused further increased career opportunities for women.69 _{In addition, scholars argue that the reduced time women spend on}

childbearing and childrearing thanks to the one-child policy caused an increase in career opportunities for women. The correlation between the time women spend on childbearing and childrearing and their career opportunities is an issue that social scientists have studied all over the world. A scientific research in the US by Van Velsor has shown that a decrease of the fertility rate correlates with an increase of career opportunities for women.70 _{In 1987,}

before the effects of the one-child policy were visible, Hong already expected that due to this correlation, the one-child policy would lead to greater career opportunities for Chinese women.71 _{He expected that the reduction of time women spend on childbearing and}

childrearing was likely to result in women starting to occupy traditionally male dominated

jobs, as they would want to do something with this spared time.72 _{According to Cooke, the}

increase in spared time mainly led to better career opportunities for women because women spend this time on obtaining a university degree.73 _{This, he argues, gave women the chance}

to occupy higher employment positions.74

Based on these effects of the one-child policy on career opportunities for women, it seems fair to believe that the one-child policy has indeed increased women’s career opportunities. According to Zeng, as a result 52% of Chinese undergraduates are now women; wages are relatively equal between men and women in China and more than a quarter of China’s CEO’s are female.75 _{These increased career opportunities are likely to have influenced}

the career expectations of the female students that are part of my research. According to Zeng’s argument, the fact that they are part of a generation of single children reduces their

competition on the labour market.76 _{Moreover, growing up in a society where women have}

fairly equal career opportunities to men77 _{might cause them to expect they have equal career}

chances to men.

72 _Ibid.

73 _{Cooke, 2017: 228.} 74 _Ibid.

75 _{Zeng & Hesketh, 2016: 1931.} 76 _Ibid.

Although the career opportunities for women have increased, some scholars believe that the gender gap has remained quite evident. According to McLaren, in 2004 there was little to no gender difference in employment and income among unmarried, non-parent men and women.78 _{Yet, McLaren argues that career chances were significantly lower for married}

women and women with children.79 _{He claims that the still remaining gender gap was related}

to stereotypical gender roles and the family-work conflict that Chinese working women had to deal with.80 _{This is interesting since the respondents to my research also mention these two}

issues as reasons for gender inequality on the current labour market. Research in other countries has similarly found that the stereotypical gender roles and the family-work conflict play an important role in causing a gender gap on the labour market. Hoffnung did a research in the US in which she interviewed college students.81 _{Based on these interviews she found}

that in the US household roles of couples who have no children are fairly equal. It is when a couple has their first child that you start to see stereotypical household roles, in which the women are mainly responsible for childrearing and domestic tasks, while the men are more responsible for bringing in money.82 _{The female college students that were interviewed for}

her research expected that once they would have a child, they would have to interrupt their career in order to take care of their child, while they did not expect their husband to do the same.83 _{This again suggests that having a child causes stereotypical gender roles and a}

family-work conflict which mainly affect women’s career opportunities, causing a gender gap. In agreement with McLaren and Hoffnung, Zhang and Pan claim that due to stereotypical gender roles, gender discrimination on the labour market has remained.84 _{They argue that during the}

one-child policy women were still discriminated by employers because employers believe that

family obligations make women less productive employees than men.85 _{So, even though the}

number of children women have, was reduced thanks to the one-child policy, it is likely that having one child still affected women’s careers.

In order to reduce the negative impact having a child had on the career of a woman, a lot of Chinese women who wanted to have a child chose to have a child before starting their

career.86 _{According to Zhou, under the one-child policy married women with a child had a}

higher chance of being hired than married women without a child.87 _{He explains that this is}

because employers are wary of hiring women who might take maternity leave in the near future, since they do not want to deal with the costs that come with maternity leave.88 _{In China,}

mothers have the right to at least 98 days of paid maternity leave.89 _{Each provincial}

government has the right to extend this period within its province. In Henan, women receive the longest period of paid leave, which is 190 days.90 _{The length of paternity leave ranges from}

7 days to 30 days.91 _{Zhou held an interview with a few people who worked in human resources}

when the one-child policy was still in place. They admitted that highly qualified women who might take childcare leave in the near future would not be hired if there was also a male candidate, even if the male candidate was less qualified for the job.92 _{However, if at the time}

of the one-child policy a woman already had a child, the chance of her leaving for childcare in the future would be unlikely. Therefore, by having a child before starting their career, women could avoid certain aspects of gender discrimination on the labour market.93

To sum up, although there are scholars who argue that the one-child policy has had a negative impact on women, it seems to have led to an increase of career opportunities for women and more gender equality on the Chinese labour market. Yet, scholars argue that a gender gap on the labour market caused by the family-work conflict and stereotypical gender roles continues to exist.94 _{This is important to understand for my research. The option of}

having a second child under the two-child policy might increase this family-work conflict for women, which could cause the gender gap on the labour market to widen. This potential growing gender gap might have affected the career expectations of the respondents to my research since the switch to the two-child policy.

3. Two-child policy

3.1 From a one-child policy to a two-child policy

In October 2015 the Chinese government announced an end to the one-child policy and replaced it with a universal two-child policy, allowing all Chinese couples to have two children.95 _{The relaxation of the one-child policy had already started in 2007, when all}

provinces with the exception of Henan allowed couples who were both only-child to have a second child.96 _{In 2013, the policy was further relaxed. From then on, couples of which one of}

the partners was an only-child were allowed to have a second child. The one-child policy was relaxed as a response to the fast population aging, the skewed gender ratio and the labour shortage that China was facing, due to the low fertility rate.97 _{The Chinese government aimed}

to make the fertility rate rise again. While in 2013 there was still a fear that a universal two-child policy would lead to a baby boom and would put pressure on China’s social services, as

stated by Zhai Zhenwu,98 _{this expectation was proven wrong when much fewer couples than}

the government had expected requested permission to have a second child after the relaxation of the one-child policy in 2013.99 _{Research shows that only two-thirds of the women that were}

allowed to have a second child at that time had the desire to have a second child.100 _{As a result,}

the fertility rates remained low.101 _{Therefore, the government finally introduced the universal}

two-child policy in 2016.102

With the implementation of the two-child policy couples are now not only allowed to have two children, but even encouraged to do so.103 _{The government tries to encourage people}

to have a second child by for example offering free treatments to remove intrauterine devices.104 _{In addition, extended maternity leave is offered to women who give birth to their}

second child to make it more appealing.105 _{Furthermore, the law now states that couples who}

give birth to a second child are eligible for certain welfare benefits,106 _{although it does not}

96 _{Zeng & Hesketh, 2016: 1932.} 97 _{Basten & Jiang, 2014: 495.} 98 _{Basten & Jiang, 2014: 498.} 99 _{Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1231.} 100 _{Zeng & Hesketh, 2016: 1932.} 101 _{Attané, 2016: 524.}

102 _{Lu & Zheng, 2017: 97.} 103 _{Attané, 2016: 526.}

104 _{Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1231.} 105 _{Attané, 2016: 527.}

specify what type of welfare benefits this includes. Besides the measures that the government has taken to encourage people to have a second child, it also put an end to the social and economic privileges, like bonusses, that couples with one child used to enjoy under the one-child policy.107 _{Moreover, the use of contraceptives is officially no longer part of state policy}

but is now left to the choice of a couple.108 _{Finally, the government uses propaganda stating}

the importance of childbearing and childrearing in an attempt to encourage people to have two children.109

3.2 Increasing the fertility rate

Since the implementation of the two-child policy is still quite recent, its effects are hard to state yet. In an attempt to establish its effects, several scholars have looked at the responses of people to the introduction of the two-child policy and at the desire of couples to have a second child. Based on these researches it seems that the two-child policy will not be very effective in doing what it was aimed to do: increasing China’s fertility rate.110

Scholars have found several motivations for couples to have a second child. One of them is the fact that having two children brings more security to parents.111 _{Having two}

children means that there are two people who can provide for them and take care of them when they get older.112 _{Moreover, there is the belief that having a second child is good in}

providing a companion to the first child.113 _{Furthermore, many couples feel pressured to have}

a second child by their parents.114 _{Whereas most parents nowadays are single children}

themselves, grandparents still tend to come from large families and believe having a large family is valuable. This, together with the fact that grandparents now often have to share one grandchild among four grandparents, leads to grandparents encouraging their children to have a second child now that the two-child policy is implemented.115

However, it seems that for most Chinese couples, motivations not to have a second child outweigh those in favour of having a second child, leading to the fertility rate to remain

109 _{Linder, 2018.}

110 _{Attané, 2016: 531; Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1241; Zhou, 2018: 16.} 111 _{Liu et al, 2016: 231.}

112 _Ibid.

113 _{Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1234.} 114 _{Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1233.} 115 _Ibid.

low.116 _{First of all, decades of propaganda for the one-child policy has created the belief that}

having more than one child is bad for China’s social and economic situation.117 _{Secondly, since}

the current generation of people of childbearing age has grown up in a society where having one child was the norm, many of them have simply accepted that this would be their future and do not feel the need to have more than one child.118 _{Thirdly, people are hesitant to have}

a second child because of financial reasons. Liu analysed online comments on the

announcement of the implementation of the two-child policy. He states that there is a general belief among people who posted web comments that the decision to have a second child is mainly dependent on the financial resources a couples has, since many couples cannot afford having a second child.119 _{Yet, even couples that do have sufficient financial resources are often}

reluctant to have a second child.120 _{This is because they want the best in terms of education}

and extracurricular activities for their child, in order to offer their child the best opportunities for the future. Having a second child means that parents have to divide their financial resources among two children, affecting their opportunities for the future.121 _{Finally, people}

are reluctant to have a second child because they are afraid that it would have a negative impact on the mothers’ career.122 _{This is important to note for my research, since female}

students who do want a second child might also expect this to have an effect on their career. In web postings about the two-child policy, many people have expressed their fear that the two-child policy would increase the stress of women and would lead to more women leaving their job in order to raise their children.123 _{This suggests that they believe the family-work}

conflict might indeed increase due to the two-child policy. In Chinese society women are still expected to invest more in the raising of their child than men.124 _{At the same time, it is the}

norm that women have a job since households are increasingly dependent on the woman’s contribution to the household income.125 _{Due to this, couples who want to have a second child}

118 _{Attané, 2016: 531; Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1241.} 119 _{Liu et al, 2016: 232.}

120 _{Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1239.} 121 _{Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1238.} 122 _{Lu & Zheng, 2017: 100.} 123 _Ibid.

124 _{Zhou, 2018: 12.}

now often face a choice between a second child and the woman’s career.126 _{In many cases,}

couples choose the career of the woman over having a second child.127

Since fertility rates hardly increased with the relaxation of the one-child policy in 2013 and since many scholars have found that most couples are unwilling to have a second child, scholars believe that the two-child policy is unlikely to successfully increase China’s fertility rate. This is mainly caused by the financial burden of a second child and the effects of having a second child on the mother’s career. Whether or not these factors are also reasons for my research group not to have a second child, are factors as to what extent their career expectations have changed since the switch to the two-child policy.

3.3 The two-child policy and gender equality

Like the one-child policy, the two-child policy has had an impact on gender equality. Zhou found in his research that many people support the two-child policy because of the fact that it has come with increased freedom for women over their own body and over their reproductive decisions.128 _{In other words, supporters of the two-child policy believe that the}

switch to the two-child policy has reduced the negative impact of the one-child policy on gender equality. For example, under the two-child policy women are less likely to undergo forced abortions or birth control measures.129 _{Besides sex-selective abortions and the}

infanticide of girls are likely to reduce.130 _{With this the skewed sex-ratio is expected to become}

more balanced again, which is likely to reduce the kidnapping and selling of women in China.131

At the same time, whereas the one-child policy led to an increase in career opportunities for women, the two-child policy seems to have decreased these career opportunities for women. News reports on this topic are likely to have created awareness of this among Chinese citizens, which might have affected the career expectations of my research group since the implementation of the two-child policy. As discussed above, women who want to have a second child are now faced with a choice between having a second child and continuing their career. Yet, even the career of women that chose not to have a second

126 _{Zhou, 2018: 12; Wang & Hesketh, 2018: 1241; Schwank et al, 2018: 643.} 127 _{Attané, 2016: 533.}

128 _{Zhou, 2018: 16.} 129 _Ibid.

130 _{Sun et al, 2016: 1.} 131 _Ibid.

child might be affected by the introduction of the two-child policy. Both the online publications the Shanghaiist and Caixin report that employers are less willing to hire female employees since the introduction of the two-child policy.132 _{According to news reports, even}

though gender discrimination is illegal according to the Chinese law, job ads increasingly specify that they are looking for “men only”133 _{or for “married women with children”.}134 _Hiring

men or married women with children reduces the risk of having to pay for maternity leave costs. Even female employees who have one child face increased discrimination. As already discussed, previously women often chose to have a child before starting their career, to increase their chances of being hired, as in this way they were unlikely to cause their employer any maternity leave costs in the future.135 _{However, with the introduction of the two-child}

policy, this is no longer the case as women with one child are now encouraged by the government to have a second child.136 _{Due to the fear of employers that having a second child}

will make a woman work less effective, women who were previously in the running for a promotion now believe they do not stand a chance to get promoted if male colleagues are also in the running.137 _{Yet, the main victims of the increased gender discrimination are young}

women without children, including the female students that took part in my research. Companies are most wary to hire these women out of fear for having to pay for maternity leave twice.138 _{On the job search site 51job.com a poll was held to investigate the attitude of}

companies towards hiring women after the implementation of the two-child policy. Out of the respondents to this poll 75% of the companies stated to be more reluctant to hire women since the introduction of the two-child policy.139

To sum up, although the two-child policy in some ways has a positive effect on gender equality in China, it seems to have a negative impact on gender equality on the Chinese labour market. Besides the fact that the decision to have a second child is likely to negatively affect a woman’s career, the increased gender discrimination on the labour market also has a negative influence on the career of some Chinese women. The increased gender discrimination on the labour market and the fact that women now face a choice between their

134 _{Mateer et al, 2018.} 135 _{Zhou, 2018: 10.} 136 _{Zhou, 2018: 15.}

137 _{Cooke, 2017: 236; Schwank et al, 2018: 643.} 138 _{Cooke, 2017: 232.}

career and having a second child are important factors that might influence the career expectations of my research group.

4. Methodology

This is a qualitative research which relies on in-depth semi-structured interviews. In total, I conducted 10 interviews with university students from mainland China. This includes both masters and doctoral students, as seen in table 1 which shows relevant personal information of the respondents.Due to a lack of time and resources, this research could only be conducted in the Netherlands. Therefore, I chose to interview Chinese students who are currently studying at Leiden University. The time that the respondents have already lived in Leiden varies from one month up to two years, with most students being in the Netherlands since September 2018. I approached three students over Facebook, through a page called “Leiden Language exchange”. The other respondents were approached through snowballing. Four students were enrolled in the science faculty. The other six were enrolled in the faculty of humanities. The respondents have certain shared features which could affect my results. First, all respondents are currently studying at Leiden University, meaning that they are all highly educated and apart from those who are here on a scholarship, have the financial means to travel and live in the Netherlands. Second, most respondents grew up in Chinese metropoles, only two respondents grew up in a village. Finally, all respondents grew up with working mothers and apart from one respondent they are all single children.

Before starting the interview, respondents were informed that the interview would be anonymous. The names used for respondents in this thesis are all pseudonyms. All interviews were conducted in English, since my Chinese language skills are very limited, and all respondents spoke English at a high level. The interviews were conducted face to face and lasted between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. The interviews were recorded and later typed out. Through a color-coded system the relevant data of all interviews was organized and coded. The interview data give a clear impression of the future career perspectives of the respondents. It also shows how they expect that having children will affect their career and how their future expectations are influenced by the switch to the two-child policy.

Table 1: personal information.

The interview consisted out of questions aimed at different aspects that might affect their future career expectations. In addition to asking about their career expectations, respondents were asked about their future family wishes, their views on gender discrimination on the labour market, their family background and their attitudes towards the two-child policy and how they feel this has affected them. Moreover, respondents who were not aware that the two-child policy might affect women’s careers, were informed about articles which argue that employers are less willing to hire young women since the introduction of the two-child policy. After this, they were asked whether they thought this would have any effect on them. In order to get an indication of whether being in the Netherlands for a certain amount of time has influenced their responses to the questions in the interview, they were asked about the effect of their stay in the Netherlands on their views on the issues that were discussed. However, it is important to note that some respondents might not realize the effect of their stay in the Netherlands on their views. The interview guide is attached in the appendix.

Name: Currently pursuing degree:

Scholarship: Age: Hometown: Siblings: Expected number of children:

Expected future career field:

Lisa Phd Yes 29 Kohhot None 1 University

Zara MA No 25 Chongqing None 2 University

Sophie MA No 31 Chengdu 2 sisters 2 University

Anna Phd Yes 26 Shandong

(rural)

None 1 Scientific

institution

Julie MA No 22 Hubei (rural) None 2 Company

Rose MA No 26 Huizhou None 2 Scientific

institution

Lana MA No 27 Shanghai None 2 or 3 Company

Emma MA Yes 25 Kohhot None 2 Company

Lin MA No 24 Xi’an None 2 or 3 University or

government

5. Results

5.1 Gender discrimination and career expectations

During the interviews it became clear that gender discrimination on the labour market is important in shaping the career expectations of my respondents. The claimed increase in gender discrimination since the two-child policy in news reports140 _{causes respondents to fear}

this increased discrimination will affect their future career. As a result, the two-child policy has affected the career expectations of some respondents.

All respondents are aware that there is gender discrimination on the Chinese labour market. They believe that their gender will play a role in their job application and will make it harder for them to get hired and to be promoted. The respondents mention several reasons for gender discrimination on the labour market. First of all, respondents believe that employers expect men to be stronger and more capable than women. In fact, some of the respondents agree that for some jobs, men are better suited. In China there is a phenomenon called 9-9-6, which is often mentioned during the interviews. It means that employees are expected to work from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week. Many respondents believe that women are not suited to make such long working hours, which they think explains why there is gender discrimination is such companies. Lin is one of these respondents. Lin expects to end up working as a teacher in a university because there working hours are quite flexible. This will give her more free time to spend with her partner and her children in the future. She believes that there are physical differences between men and women, as she states:

“Sometimes it is really that women cannot do something that men can do. … Like 9-9-6, some men can stay up very late for their job, but some women could not. It is just our physical difference.”

The second reason that respondents give for gender discrimination on the Chinese labour market is the fact that employers still hold on to stereotypical gender roles. Many respondents state the fact that in Chinese society it is the mother who is expected to raise the children while the father is expected to bring in money. There is a general sense among the respondents that due to these stereotypical gender roles employers prefer to hire men because they expect women to be preoccupied with their family. Since the two-child policy encourages

women to have a second child, respondents assume that employers expect the burden of having a family to have increased for women since the two-child policy. As a result, respondents expect employers to be even warier to hire or give promotions to women, causing an increase of gender discrimination. The third cause of gender discrimination that respondents discuss, is maternity leave. I found that most respondents expect employers to prefer hiring men in order to avoid maternity leave costs. Since women are guaranteed to get 98 days of maternity leave141 _{whereas men are only guaranteed 7-30 days,}142 _{cost wise it is}

preferable for employers to hire men instead of women. Besides the extra costs that come with maternity leave, my respondents have frequently mentioned that maternity leave causes a long interruption on the work that an employee is doing and affects the continuity of a company or institution. The switch to the two-child policy has increased this issue. Women are now more likely to go on maternity leave twice and are offered extended maternity leave when having their second child.143 _{For an employer, this means that maternity costs will}

increase, that work will be interrupted more often, and that the continuity of the company will be even more disrupted. These three reasons have also been found by Cooke and Zhou as important causes of increased gender discrimination.144

Whereas all respondents were aware of gender discrimination on the labour market, not many respondents had yet heard of the increased gender discrimination that articles claim has been caused by the two-child policy. Only four respondents had already heard or read about it. The other six were informed about it during the interview. Although all respondents believe the increased gender discrimination is unfair to women, they can understand why it is happening and do not seem to blame employers for it. They understand that for instance the extra interruption that having a second child causes on a woman’s work is a reason for employers to prefer hiring men. One participant, named Rose states that she has read discussions on the Chinese online platform ‘Weibo’ about the increased gender discrimination on the labour market. Based on what she has read, she believes it is mainly the government who is responsible for the increased gender discrimination. Rose explains:

142 _{Zhou, 2018: 6.} 143 _{Attané, 2016: 527.}

“The government says if you hire a woman and she is pregnant you cannot fire her. But who will pay for the costs of when she is absent? It is not the government, it is the company. So, the company says, okay, so now I also have to pay for the costs of the females second child. She is not working here, but I still have to pay her. So, now the company will automatically not want to hire women.”

Most respondents realize that the increased discrimination that the two-child policy has caused might affect their future career. I found that especially those women who want to have two children think that the increased discrimination will affect their future career. According to the respondents asking whether a woman wants to have children in the future is as a standard and acceptable question during a job interview. However, respondents do not expect employers to ask a male interviewee about his family wishes. Therefore, they believe this practice is a serious issue of gender discrimination. With the introduction of the two-child policy questions during job interviews about women’s wishes to have a second two-child are increasingly heard of according to my respondents. Some respondents worry that expressing their wish to have a second child could affect an employer’s decision in the hiring process. Lana is one of these respondents. She wishes to work as a programmer at a pharmaceutical company in the future. Lana already wanted two children under the one-child policy and was planning to pay the fines for having an additional out of plan child. She thinks that the two-child policy might cause her to end at a different position than she had previously expected to end at. Lana explains:

“Now they will ask you when or whether you are planning to have a second child. That is a problem. It will be a problem for me too. … I want my two children and it is a sort of sacrifice. So, in this way the two-child policy may have an influence on my career. I think they [the employers] will give me a less loaded job position.”

Lana thinks that due to the two-child policy she is more likely to end up at a managing position, which is a less demanding job. Four other respondents made similar comments.

Another important finding is that respondents believe that the extent of gender discrimination differs per field. Respondents frequently mention that it is mainly in private and corporate businesses that gender plays an important role in the hiring process. Although, women expect that employers in all fields will take into account the family wishes of a woman

during the hiring process,145 _{they believe that especially in corporate and private businesses}

women might not be hired or might be hired for a lower position when expressing the wish to have children in the future. In order to avoid this discrimination, women tend to lie about their family wishes during an interview, according a respondent named Rose. Rose worked in an international engineer company in China before she started her masters in the Netherlands last September. She witnessed gender discrimination during her job interviews and believes that lying is the best way to avoid this:

“If you are honest you can tell the company, I plan to have a child in three or four years, but that will influence your job. So, there are many situations where women did not say they planned to have children. But after they got a job, they worked for half a year and then said they were pregnant. Then the boss is like, what can I do, I cannot fire you, we have a contract. … So, I think a lot of people lie in their interview.”

Instead of lying during an interview, some respondents say that they will try to avoid gender discrimination by choosing not to work in a private company in the future, but in a different field. Two respondents who previously wanted to work as for instance a programmer or a manager in a company now changed their career plans due to the increased gender discrimination since the two-child policy. They now prefer to end up working at a university or for the government. Besides the fact that working hours are shorter in these fields and the fact that these are stable and less demanding jobs, respondents also prefer working in these fields because they expect that gender discrimination is not as big of an issue in the hiring process for these jobs. The main reason for gender discrimination derives from the fact that employers face extra costs when a female employee becomes pregnant and has children. Respondents explain that the aim of universities and governmental institutions unlike companies and private businesses is not necessarily to make money. Moreover, they receive subsidies from the government. Therefore, respondents believe that universities and governmental institutions worry less about running into extra costs than private companies do when hiring women. Anna, who previously wished to end up as a researcher for a research institution now thinks she will end up working at a university. Even though Anna is only planning to have one child, she has adjusted her career expectation because she believes her

chances to get employed in an institution have reduced due to the increased gender discrimination.

The fact respondents believe that gender plays a smaller role in the hiring process in universities and government jobs does not mean they think there is no gender discrimination. According Sophie, whose husband works for the government, the expectations of women in universities and governmental institutions are much lower than those of men. She states:

“They accept women, but they treat women in a different way. They do not expect them to work really hard. The men have to work really hard, they over-work, but they do not put a lot of pressure on women.”

Although some of the respondents say they prefer working at a university or government institution exactly because these are more relaxed jobs for women, others believe that even this is unfair since it still shows a lack of gender equality. Moreover, respondents believe that also in universities and governmental institutions employers will sometimes prefer to hire men, however to a lower extent than in companies.

It is clear that the respondents believe that gender discrimination is a problem in all work fields of the Chinese labour market. The idea that the two-child policy has led to an increase of discrimination has for some respondents influenced their career expectations. I found that the increased gender discrimination mainly affects those respondents who want to work in companies and private businesses and those who want to have two children or more. Due to the two-child policy, three out of the five of my respondents who wanted to end at a company or a private institution now either expect to end in less demanding positions or have decided to choose for a job in a field where there is less gender discrimination, for example in a university or for the government. I also found that most respondents who want to have two children or more expect that they might have trouble being hired or might end at a lower position because employers will more often ask about the number of children that they wish to have during a job interview and when considering giving women a promotion. My findings are in agreement with those of other scholars including Cooke and Schwank who also argue that the chances of women to get hired or promoted is now reduced due to the possibility of them having a second child.146

5.2 The family-work conflict and career expectations

As I discussed before, several scholars including McLaren and Hoffnung, argue that the family-work conflict is the main cause for the current gender gap on the labour market.147

In agreement with this, I found that most respondents indeed expect their family and career to form a conflict in the future and expect this conflict to increase because of the two-child policy. This is another way in which the two-child policy affects their career expectations.

The fact that all respondents expect to run into a family-work conflict is partly caused by their expectation to have children in the future. Although not all respondents wish to have children in the future, they all expect that it will happen anyway. Over half of the respondents could not give a clear reason for wanting children except for the fact that having children is a “natural thing”, which will simply happen. It seems that having children is the norm for women in China and is something that they take for granted. A respondent named Lin believes this is due to the social pressure there is in China to have children. Lin has been in the Netherlands for 2,5 years. She feels that women experience a lot of social pressure in China to find a boyfriend, to get married and to have children before reaching a certain age. Lin is currently doing her masters and is planning to do a PhD abroad as well. This means that she will be around 30 when returning to China. Her friends back home have warned her that at the age of 30 it will be hard for her to find a boyfriend and get married. However, being exposed to Dutch norms and values has made her realize that she does not need to give in to this social pressure. She explains:

“Before I thought I am getting old, I am already 22. But later [when I was in the Netherlands] I thought it is fine, I will just pursue my own goals. It is just social pressure. It is other Chinese people who are like: you are 28, you need to get married and have children. … This is really different in the Netherlands. Here nobody says you are 26 you need to get a boyfriend. It really influenced me.”

Lin believes that this social pressure is an important reason for many women to have children. While there seems to be this expectation for women to have children, respondents also feel the pressure to work in the future, leading to a family-work conflict. The main reason for the pressure they feel to work is the high living costs in China which has made two-income

households the standard. Respondents also frequently mention the need they feel to become financially independent of their parents and their future husband. Both the pressure to have children and that to have a job of their own are important factors in the career expectations of my respondents. It means that they need to consider how to deal with the family-work conflict that this will cause. Especially if they consider having a second child.

Whereas some respondents expect to get a quite relaxed job as for instance a teacher at a university or an employee of the government in order to have more free time to spend with their children, others wish to get a more demanding position and want to work their way up in for instance a company. Although it could be assumed that it is mainly the women with a more demanding job who would expect to need to sacrifice part of their career when having children, all respondents expect that having children will affect their career. When discussing how they expect to deal with a family-work conflict, only one respondent expects that her career will be her priority. She explains that she is sure that her parents will help to take care of her children when she is working. It is interesting that all respondents have paid high tuition fees and worked hard to reach a high education level with which they can get a good career, yet nine out of ten respondents expect that once they have children their career will not be their priority. These respondents want to be quite involved in the raising of their children and are willing to consider working less if this would be necessary to raise their children when running into a family-work conflict.

The impact of the family-work conflict on these women’s career expectations further becomes clear when discussing their ideal age to have children. For most respondents their career plays an important role in their decision of when to have children. When asked about the ideal age to have children, all respondents reply that ideally, they want to have children between 30 and 35. Apart from biological reasons and the wish to enjoy their own freedom, the most important reason respondents give to want children between 30 and 35 is because they want to focus on their career for a few years before having children. Some respondents even expect to be willing to postpone having children if this would be needed for their career. This is in contrast with the outcome of Zhou’s research in which he argues that women tend to have a child before starting their career.148 _{I rather agree with McLaren, that the moment}

of childbirth is when the career opportunities of a woman quickly change,149 _{which is a reason}

why my respondents want to postpone this moment.

The first reason why respondents want to focus on their career before having children is because of the costs that come with having children. They first want to earn enough money to be able to pay for the expenses of a child’s education and living costs. In the past decades, education and living costs have increased significantly in China.150 _{As Zhou argues, the}

one-child policy has created a society in which parents want to provide their one-children with more than basic needs. They want their children to have a quality life and quality education.151 _I

draw the same conclusion from my research. Several respondents express the idea that competition in Chinese society is high and that they want to provide their children with quality education and co-curricular activities in order to offer them the best opportunities for the future.In order to be able to afford this they want to safe up money before having children and therefore plan to delay childbirth.

The second reason why respondents want to wait with having children is because they wish to delay the negative impact that they expect having children will have on their career. In other words, they want to delay running into a family-work conflict. As previously mentioned, most respondents expect that after having children they will need to work less in order to take care of their children. In agreement with Schwank who found that women feel that their chances of getting promoted decrease when having children,152 _{I found that my}

respondents also expect to lose their chances of getting a salary raise or a promotion when

having children. Rose has seen this happening to women around her who wanted to have

children while still pursuing their career. She states:

“Some people I know, women, they got a good career promotion. They were almost about to get the higher position but then they decided to have a child. And then everything stopped.”

All three respondents who wish to get a high position in a company, expect that in order to pursue the career they want they will need to delay childbirth.

150 _{Cooke, 2017: 231.} 151 _{Zhou, 2018: 13.}

While respondents want to delay the negative effect that having their first child will have on their career, respondents who consider having two children or more expect that having an additional child will affect their career even more. Therefore, if the two-child policy has influenced their decision to want an additional child, the two-child policy has caused a change in their career expectations. Respondents mention three ways in which they expect having an additional child to affect their career. First of all, some respondents think that the extra costs that come with having an additional child will influence their career. Due to these extra costs, some respondents think they will need to find a better-paying and more demanding job when having a second child. One respondent named Lisa wants to have two children and wishes to become a teacher in university. However, Lisa expects that she might need to go through a career switch at some point if she would decide to have an additional child. She states:

“I think that when I have my first child maybe I will be on my first job in university. When I consider my second child, I will have to find a more high-income job depending on the job of my partner, because the money is really needed to raise two children.” Three other respondents also mention that they expect having a second child to affect their career due to the extra costs that come with it. Julie who wants to do a marketing job at a big company like Huawei is the only participants who states that she expects not to be willing to change her career in order to have a second child.She hopes that favourable policies of the government to financially support families with two children will make it affordable for her to have two children. Otherwise, she will choose not to have a second child as she believes it would be hard to combine having an additional child with an even more demanding career.

Moreover, four other respondents expect that having a second child would demand a lot of extra time. Therefore, in contrast to those who expect to need to find a better-paying and more demanding job when having a second child, these respondents expect that they will need to switch to a more relaxed job. Some expect to do this voluntarily as a second child would demand a lot of their energy, which would be easier to combine with a less demanding job. One respondent, named Sophie has seen women making a similar career switch in the company where she worked in China, before starting her masters in the Netherlands. After the introduction of the two-child policy a lot of women started working at the company where Sophie was working at that time. She recalls: