Challenge: restore China's gender ratio

[Unconsensual]

The title says it all, we all know that an excess of males are detrimental to social stability so how can one propose to fix this? Now in the interest of discussion let's stay away from obvious and possibly kick worthy methods like mass culling ,a giant war, or mass sterilization.

 

[Kongzilla]

Change the laws so that it is One daughter one family instead of One Boy. Or offer government incentives to have a daughter. allow and Immigration of a larger amount of Females and lessen that of Males.

 

[Tony]

Change the laws so that it is One daughter one family instead of One Boy. Or offer government incentives to have a daughter. allow and Immigration of a larger amount of Females and lessen that of Males.

The title says it all, we all know that an excess of males are detrimental to social stability so how can one propose to fix this? Now in the interest of discussion let's stay away from obvious and possibly kick worthy methods like mass culling ,a giant war, or mass sterilization.

I think you guys are misunderstanding something. It happens only in major cities. In rural and farming areas, the ratio is true complete opposite - because if you get a daughter as your first child, you could have another child after another 4 yers until you get a son. That's why, many poor people who has to earn a living by farming would pretty much hope to have a daughter first, for the sake of manpower. The all-evil one-child policy and the Hukou system must be abolished to stop such imbalance in either way.

 

[Color-Copycat]

With the right conditions, I think the Cultural Revolution could potentially become even more hostile towards traditional Confucian patriarchy and do more in terms of female empowerment.

 

[vuun]

I think you guys are misunderstanding something. It happens only in major cities. In rural and farming areas, the ratio is true complete opposite - because if you get a daughter as your first child, you could have another child after another 4 yers until you get a son. That's why, many poor people who has to earn a living by farming would pretty much hope to have a daughter first, for the sake of manpower. The all-evil one-child policy and the Hukou system must be abolished to stop such imbalance in either way.

Actually the reverse is true--the gender imbalance is highest in the rural areas (with the exception of areas populated by ethnic minorities to whom the one child policy does not apply) and lowest in the cities, as a result of greater poverty and cultural conservatism in rural areas. While the one child policy and the ease of abortions is the main culprit in China's current gender imbalance, the fact is that gender imbalance has long been a major social problem in China in the past, as a result of female infanticide or neglect of girls. While the current situation would not have arisen without the one child policy, the underlying cultural preference for boys, especially in rural areas, is what really would need to be changed.

 

[Tsochar]

announce that daughters are exempt from the one-child policy. You can have any number of daughters, but only one son. It'll probably cause some ugliness with respect to gender politics, but I think it'll do the trick. Beyond that, I don't know what can be done.

 

[Lleibi]

I think you guys are misunderstanding something. It happens only in major cities. In rural and farming areas, the ratio is true complete opposite - because if you get a daughter as your first child, you could have another child after another 4 yers until you get a son. That's why, many poor people who has to earn a living by farming would pretty much hope to have a daughter first, for the sake of manpower. The all-evil one-child policy and the Hukou system must be abolished to stop such imbalance in either way.

Actually the reverse is true--the gender imbalance is highest in the rural areas (with the exception of areas populated by ethnic minorities to whom the one child policy does not apply) and lowest in the cities, as a result of greater poverty and cultural conservatism in rural areas. While the one child policy and the ease of abortions is the main culprit in China's current gender imbalance, the fact is that gender imbalance has long been a major social problem in China in the past, as a result of female infanticide or neglect of girls. While the current situation would not have arisen without the one child policy, the underlying cultural preference for boys, especially in rural areas, is what really would need to be changed.

Ok, you two are describing completely opposite situations. I have always heard that the abortion of girls was more important in the countryside... but what it is the truth? what data are you two relying on for your respective statements?

 

[Chris Triangle]

announce that daughters are exempt from the one-child policy. You can have any number of daughters, but only one son. It'll probably cause some ugliness with respect to gender politics, but I think it'll do the trick. Beyond that, I don't know what can be done.

I know, I can't understand why they don't do that, it seems so obvious!

 

[Unconsensual]

Hmm, this just came out on Monday. Apparently the number of Income earning Chinese people just fell this year, it's a technicality since it didn't includ people in their 60's but its still an indicator of things to come.

link: http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2013/01/chinas-workforce#comments
China's workforce
Will you still need me?
Jan 21st 2013, 16:55 by S.C. | HONG KONG

ON FRIDAY, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that China's working-age population shrank last year. In the slow-moving world of demographics, that felt like a dramatic turning point: "peak toil", if you like. The mobilisation of Chinese labour over the past 35 years has shaken the world. Never before has the global economy benefited from such a large addition of human energy.

And now the additions are over. The ending came rather sooner than expected. The percentage of Chinese who are of working age started falling in 2011. But the number of working-age Chinese was expected to grow for a few more years yet. As recently as 2005, official projections suggested it would grow until the mid-2020s.

I'm not sure why demographers got it wrong. Predicting future rates of longevity and especially fertility is undeniably hard. But surely it isn't that difficult to figure out how many people aged seven today will become 15 (and thus of working age) in eight years' time. Therefore, it shouldn't be that hard to predict the near future of the working-age population. Perhaps the difficulty lies not with prediction so much as measurement. As I understand it, the yearly estimates of China's population are based on an annual national survey of about 1.5m people. Given the size of China's population, it would be easy to miscalculate the numbers by a few million here or there. Such errors could easily throw a projection out by a few years.

Also worth bearing in mind is the definition of working age. In last year's press release, working age was defined as 15-64 years old. That is a common age range used by the UN's Population Division and China's own Statistical Yearbook. But for the purposes of Friday's press conference, the NBS changed the definition, referring instead to 15-59 year olds. The number of Chinese in this age group declined by 3.45m, it reported (see chart). But the number of people aged 15-64 seems to be increasing still. It rose to 1.004 billion in 2012 (I inferred this total based on other numbers provided in the press conference).


There's nothing wrong with either age range. The 15-64 range reflects common international practice and China's own past definition. The 15-59 range is probably a better reflection of China's economic reality, where men can retire from formal jobs at 60 and women often retire five or ten years earlier. (According to the National Transfer Accounts pioneered by Ronald Lee and Andrew Mason, 60 is the age at which the average Chinese earns less than he consumes, becoming, in effect, a dependant.)

But it's interesting that the NBS chose to rejig the definition of working age for this press conference. One can only assume they chose the 15-59 age group precisely because its numbers are already declining. That allowed them to highlight a worrying demographic trend. In response to a reporter's question, Ma Jiantang, the head of the NBS, said he did not want the population figures to be lost in the sea of data.

It is almost as if China's statisticians decided to set the clock a few minutes fast to make sure China's policymakers have good time to prepare for their impending demographic duties.

 

[RousseauX]

The title says it all, we all know that an excess of males are detrimental to social stability so how can one propose to fix this? Now in the interest of discussion let's stay away from obvious and possibly kick worthy methods like mass culling ,a giant war, or mass sterilization.

Remove the one-child restriction (which the government is already doing) and the gender balance restores itself in a generation insofar you believe said law is the reason for gender imbalance.