A Study On The Family With Only One Daughter In Rural Area Under The Traditional Patriarchy

In the Chinese rural area patriarchy has been the core of the cultural in history. As a result, to bring a son has become the farmer's ideal firmly. So in the rural area with deep patriarchy culture and strong son preference, there exists a conflict between the family policy and the patriarchy's rules. Especially with the pushing of the second birth chance policy, family with only one daughter suffers a lot because of the conflict, whose living conditions and birth desire have been an important factor infecting the son preference of rural area. Under this background, this paper focuses on the family with only one daughter in rural area, makes an investigation in Hong'an county and Xishui County of Hubei province, studies the living condition and the difficulties the family with only one daughter must face under the traditional patriarchy culture. The paper covers 5 parts: The first part illustrates the research background, including current research. Also it shows the research significance and methods. The second part is based on the documents observed by interviews and literatures, describes the characters of the patriarchy in rural area nowadays. It is indicated that the patriarchy in these area has both the stability and mobility. On the one hand, its central idea is reserved, on the other hand part of its rules begins to change as the time goes on. The third part introduces the one-daughter family's actual living condition, including its amount, distributing, characters and the support from government's policy. The study shows that the family with only one daughter in rural area is still in a weak position because of the great pressure from traditional patriarchy. In the forth part, the writer observes deeply the difficulties the one-daughter family has to face under the traditional patriarchy customs. The paper points out that daughter's marriage and providing for the aged have become the main problems obsessing the one-daughter family of rural area. The fifth part gives the basic conclusions, showing relative discussion and shortages.