Study On Gender Preference Of Peasants In Ethnic Minority Areas

Based on social gender theory, gender stratification and gender inequality theory, taking village N, village S, and village B in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as a case (village N and S belong to Shangsi County, and village B belongs to Longsheng County. During the nationwide census in 2000, birth gender ratio of former two villages was 152.3, ranking the third in county-level administrative units in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, while birth gender ratio of the latter was below than 100 and the lowest), carrying out fieldworks after carefully reading and analyzing the related literature, the thesis describes the status quo of gender preference of peasants in ethnic minority areas and analyzes the causes of gender preference of peasants in ethnic minority areas and its influence. Mainly, two research methods are involved: questionnaire and interviews. The statistics packet of the social science software (SPSS, VER13.0) is used for statistical analysis. Meanwhile, this thesis tries to put forward some measures and methods to improve female living conditions and weaken peasants'concept of son preference, aiming at establishing a reasonable and harmonious gender structure in ethnic minority areas.The thesis is made up of the following six parts.The first part is to illustrate the background of this research, to put forward research methods and to make a literary review.The second part is to introduce social gender theory, gender stratification and gender inequality theory, and to differentiate and analyze the two important concepts of"rural areas in ethnic minority areas"and"gender preference".The third part is to analyze the gender preference of peasants in village N, S and village B based on the data of fieldworks and SPSS. It is found that, without taking the birth control into consideration, son preference ratio of peasants in village N, S is 24% higher than that of village B. Suppose that only one child is allowed in one family, son preference ratio of peasants in village N, S is about 40% higher than that of village B. In childbearing, peasants in village N, S obviously prefer sons while there is no gender preference in village B. In child rising, there is no obvious difference and son preference in village N, S and village B.The fourth part is to analyze the causes of gender preference of peasants in ethnic minority areas under the guidance of related theories and methods of combining quantitative study and qualitative investigation. It is found that the causes of the strong son preference in village N and S are : Firstly,agriculture industry determines that peasants depend much on laboring, which is an unchanged objective factor of gender preference. Secondly, the prevailing marital mode there is that sort of man marring a wife, thus family property is inherited by sons but not by daughters, only sons will inherit family name, values of woman lie in their fertility to have children (especially sons), and woman has a low status (events in the village and family are up to men), which will inevitably lead the local peasants to"son-bearing"or even"sons-bearing"in fertility. Thirdly, guided by male acceptance of local social gender culture, trained by traditional cultures and the local backward cultures, peasants tend to prefer sons. Finally, the strict implementation of National Family Planning policies leaves scanty fertility room for Zhuang people in village N and S and causes them fail to satisfy their desire to have children.The reasons why there is no obvious gender preference in village B probably are: The need of males in local crop production is not very strong, and females are playing a great part in productions and daily lives. The majority in village B is Yao people with prevailing uxorilocal marriage, which influences family evaluation of children'values, so family without sons will have an ambil-anak son to achieve their goals of inheriting, laboring needs and aged security. Local fertility culture tends to pursue the balance of gender structure. What's more, Yao people have been living in the mountain areas for a long time, still maintaining the pursuits of being equal, natural and harmonious. In childbearing, they advocate the equality between men and women, and let nature take its course. Meanwhile, National Family Planning policy leaves them more free fertility room than that of the Zhuang people. The local implementation of National Family Planning policy and related policies are going on well.The fifth part is to analyze the social consequences of gender preference of peasants in village N and S based on the research results. Mainly they are the continual high population gender ratio, inequality between men and women, damaging women's health, violating women's living and development rights, high birth ratio and squeezing of marriage markets and so on.The sixth part is to put forward the methods of weakening son preference of peasants in ethnic minority areas based on the related theories and summaries of research results, that is, to establish a system of"family planning–aged security", to encourage uxorilocal marriages in areas of man marrying a wife, to change the inheriting system, to set up new fertility culture, to establish the social gender culture of equality and to adjust family planning polices and so on.