How did the Urban Experience of Chinese Women Change overTime?

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How did the Urban Experience of Chinese Women Change overTime?
The Chinese have undergone changes, both drastic and gradual over time to achieve social and economic development. Specifically, the Chinese urban woman has had various experiences aligned with the changes in the economy and society as a whole. The urban woman is a term used to describe women who are independent when it comes to decision-making and reside in cities because they either work there or their husbands work there(Zuo).Different eras have dictated what a woman’s role in society should be and what she should set to achieve in her life. For instance, the status of the urban woman in China has been affected by the reform era, an observation made by Sun and Chen (1091), indicating that the growth of the urban Chinese women has stagnated as a result of the reforms. The modern urban Chinese woman’s view on beauty, marriage, and life, in general, is different from the one held by urban women in the Mao era. There have been changes in employment opportunities and labor input, child care, and marriage over time. This paper focuses on how the above-mentioned aspects of women in China’s urban cities have changed over time.
Child-Care
Primarily, the responsibility of child-care belongs to women among the Chinese. Therefore, it is important to consider how the experiences of urban women have changed with regard to child-care over time. During the Mao era, the State relieved women the burden of child-care by implementing programs that funded child-care (Du and Dong 132). These programs were put in place to ensure that women were able to participate in the labor market because, during the era, women and men were the same. As such, having child-care programs ensured that child-care was not preventing women to do what men were doing in terms of contribution to the economy. Urban women had the opportunity of taking their young children to kindergartens and nurseries that were publicly funded to ensure that children were well prepared before joining primary schools, and shift the burden of care from women (Du and Dong 133). As a result, China became one of the countries to have a high women participation in the labor market among its counterparts in the developing markets during the era (133). While the promotion of equality among men and women contributed to the increased labor participation by women, the extent of participation could not have been so pronounced if programs for child-care were not implemented. This is because, without the programs, women would have either opted to delay childbirth or forego paid work so as to take care of their child since they are the primary caregivers. Urban women were also provided with paid maternity leave and their employers had to provide them with rooms for breastfeeding. Further, urban women whose employers had no child-care programs were supported by the neighborhood committees (Du and Dong 134). As such, urban women during the Mao’s era were able to participate in the labor market without having to compromise on childbearing and care, something that the modern woman has to do due to lack of a solid child-care support system.However, women were still assigned the traditional gender roles of child-care and house chores, regardless of the purported equality during the Mao era (Sun and Chen 1105). This implies that double standards formed part of the urban woman experiences because gender roles within the family unit were not shared equally.
The post-Mao came with so many economic and policy reforms, and women formed the largest part of individuals affected by those reforms. Specifically, the support provided by the State was withdrawn as China adopted privatization and competition in the market. The child-care programs that were funded by the State during the Mao era were privatized during the post-Mao era, and others were closed down (Du and Dong). As a result, the burden of child-care shifted back to women, and balancing between work and family became a new aspect of their lives. Zuo (122) notes that during the post-Mao era, urban women, especially those from low-income families, were forced to choose their work over child-care and family responsibilities. This is because paid work supplemented their low income, and staying at home to tender for children was not a viable option. The option was only available to urban women whose husbands made more money, allowing women to concentrate on child-care.
However, women have also been relieved of the child-care burden by the elderly in China. Zhao (4) indicate that the small size of families arising from the one-child policy in China has enabled grandparents to provide care for their grandchildren when the parents go to work. Despite this, urban women’s participation in the labor market continues to decline as women have to take care of their children. Recently, the Chinese government has allowed families to have more than one child, and a lot of speculation and research have been on how this move will affect fertility in the country. However, it is also important to analyze how the decision will affect child-care, especially in relation to working urban women. The limitation on the number of children a Chinese family can have may have eliminated the fertility pressure placed on women in other societies to have more children, but the current change in policy may bring this pressure to urban women in China. Basically, more children imply more burden of child-care to be experienced by women, and this should be addressed too. In addition, more than 20% of the Chinese population comprises of people over 55 years of age (Index Mundi), implying that the Chinese woman has to take care of the elderly too. This places more burden on the urban Chinese woman who is already sacrificing marriage and child-bearing under the pro-family concept (Ji) in pursuit of career development.
Employment
Women employment and participation in the labor market has always been viewed as part of women empowerment. Women in Chinese urban cities have had different experiences over time when it comes to employment and labor market participation. The Mao era declared that women and men were the same, and as such, women were to be afforded similar opportunities as men. As such, women in this era were able to participate in meaningful labor while still taking care of their families (Zuo 158). The political leaders also put in place policies and interventions that limited the exploitation of labor, which was especially beneficial to women who wanted to be career-oriented (158). As such, the economic and political system was supportive of women employees, which led to improved and stable standards of living among urban families. Zuo notes that women in this era were more appreciative of paid work than in any other era. This could be attributed to the fact that paid work gave women financial independence that they had not experienced before and as noted by Yang and Yan (7), women liberation in China during the Mao era was driven by women employment, which would free them from the control of the men in their lives. Despite the employment opportunities, taking care of the family was still part of the woman’s responsibility and this limited their chances of getting promotion ate work.
The gender equality put forward in the Mao’s era purported women and men as equals, even in terms of their physical strength, and women were willing to work even in manual labor that was mostly performed by men. They were, of course, applauded for their input, which led to more women applying for all jobs, including manual ones. However, Yang and Yan (8) reveal that urban women in this era experienced negative effects as a result of the physical and psychological strain associated with the type of work they were doing. They were under pressure to prove that they could work and perform tasks that were formerly referred to as manly. This could also be attributed to the fact that they did not want to lose the independence and freedom associated with paid work, and failing to perform the “manly” tasks could take them back to being dependent on men. The system was also trying to ensure that the division of labor was neutral among both genders and as a result, the different capabilities that differentiate men and women were ignored (Yang and Yan 7). As such, urban women during the Mao era experienced economic development in terms of labor and employment, but also had to suffer physically and psychologically in pursuit of equality in the labor market.However, the uneducated women during this era did not stand a chance of working outside their home as they were viewed as backward and uninformed (Zuo 1). Men without basic education could perform manual labor but illiterate women were expected to stay at home. Women who took part in manual work had some basic education, given that their uneducated counterpart had to stay at home, yet all men had access to jobs. This indicates some of the complexities faced by women during the Mao era which preached equality and created barriers for women at the same time. Further, the distribution of wealth during the Mao era was based on the contribution of each member of society in labor (Zuo 107). While women participated in labor productivity, a number of them were still housewives, indicating that in general, women did not receive equal wealth with their male counterparts. This furthe...