Books – agencies
Monday, April 10, 2023 04:10 PM
It seems that China is in an unenviable position because of what it has made with its birth control law, as the Asian dragon is suffering from a demographic crisis represented in the high aging of the population, and this is due to the choice of more women to focus on their careers and personal goals, rather than starting a family, which puts India is close to the title of the world’s largest country in terms of population.
According to Sky News Arabia, the Chinese government had abolished the one-child policy in 2016 and abolished childbearing limits in 2021.
However, couples are having fewer children — or choosing not to have any children at all, said Mo Cheng, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore.
“The Covid virus still carries many negative repercussions and has caused a general sense of uncertainty about the future,” Mu told CNBC. “There is a sense of helplessness that prevents many women from wanting to have children.”
She also noted that the rising cost of living is driving more people away from wanting to expand their families.
And the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics reported that the population fell to 1.412 billion last year from 1.413 billion in 2021, and the natural growth rate turned negative for the first time since 1960.
Independent economist Andy Shi said that China has more working mothers than Western countries, adding: “There is a desire to get a job in China and being a housewife is never a goal.”
As more women attain higher qualifications and move up the ranks in the workplace, they expect their husbands to earn more than them, as Andy Shi puts it.
Statista data showed that in 2020, female students accounted for nearly 42 percent of those enrolled in doctoral degrees, and the number of women registered for master’s degrees was much higher than the number of men.
“Men face a huge burden because women will demand financial security from them,” and so they won’t want to get married either, according to Shi, who said, “People have been criticized for being single, but there is no social stigma against them anymore.”