Research On Fertility Intentions And Policy Support Under The "Work-life Balance"

Fertility issues are related to the future of the country.After entering the 21 st century,China’s total fertility rate has remained around 1.5-1.6,which is lower than the level of2.1 to maintain the replacement of generations.In order to maintain the advantages of our human resources,China has successively implemented the "separate two-child","comprehensive two-child" and "three-child" policies.Although these policies have achieved certain results,the trend of aging is irreversible,and our population development has entered a critical turning point.According to the sociological definite the population of childbearing age,this artical selects the population of childbearing age between 15 and 49 years old as the research object.Based on the theory of "work-life balance" and policy tools,using qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the relationship between fertility intentions and "worklife balance".In quantitative part,the data comes from the database of the "Population Fertility and Public Service" research group.According to the results: the relationship between wolk-life balance and fertility intentions is reciprocal.Firstly,we explored the influence of "work-life balance" to fertility intentions.The independent variable "worklife balance" is divided into the status of "work-life balance" and the expected difficulty of "work-life balance".Found that the more balanced an individual’s work-life status was,the higher willingness to have children.But at the same time,the individual also have to work,and the choice of childbearing will have an impact on the career development,making it difficult to achieve the expected "work-life balance",so the willingness to have a child is reduced.Secondly,to explore the impact of the fertility intentions to "work-life balance".The dependent variable "work-life balance" is divided into two variables: the time allocation of work and life and the expected choice of "work-life balance".The higher the fertility intentions for family to have children are,the more working time is;the higher the fertility intentions for family to have children are,the more housework time is.However,individuals cannot increase working and living time at the same time.The analysis is due to the division of labor in the family.The male increase the working hours will lead to higher salary,and the women increase the time to take care of the family can achieve a "work-life balance" at the family level.At the same time,the higher the intentions of individuals to have children,the more they consider the family when choosing a career based on the choice of the expected "work-life balance".The qualitative part adopts the form of interviews to find that when people of childbearing age face the dilemma of "work-life balance",they can achieve "work-life balance" through concessions in career choice,family division of labor,family intergenerational support,and social support.After sorting out data analysis,the study proposes policy recommendations from the following three aspects: building a multi-dimensional childcare system include:government,private,community and family to alleviate the problem of child careing;encouraging flexible work and telecommuting,implement paternity leave for male,and formulate stimulating maternity leave lengths to provide family care time support;improving the expected "work-life balance" to protect women’s rights and provide labor maket supports.