Traditional Norms And Real-life Arrangements: A Research On Childbearing-age Women's Fertility Desire Of The Second Child

With the implementation of the universal two-child policy in 2015,the originally coercive fertility policy has been transformed into a more lenient and guiding fertility policy,and many studies have pointed to the changing role of fertility policy on the fertility behavior and fertility intentions of the population,which poses a challenge to the effective outlook of fertility in China.In the context of the implementation of the two-child policy,this thesis takes the factors influencing women's fertility desire of the second child as the starting point,and introduces the theoretical discussion of East Asian 'compressed modernity' to explore its explanatory power in the Chinese family context.Using CGSS2017 data,this thesis analyses the impact of traditional familyist values,economic status and childcare support on childbearing-age women 's fertility desire of the second child,with a framework of traditional norms and real-life arrangements.The thesis finds that traditional norms and real-life arrangements have important influences on childbearing-age women 's fertility desire of the second child.Social gender awareness which recognize differences between genders and traditional familyist norms that emphasize the succession continue to play important roles in promoting women's willingness to have a second child.Meanwhile,their fertility desire can be influenced by the availability of childcare resources,such as financial means.Specifically,more traditional gender awareness,the notion of having at least one son,better economic status,and more supportive family members to care for them all contribute significantly to women's willingness to have a second child.This suggests that women of child-bearing age are likely to be driven by traditional norms and familism values,but are constrained by the real economic costs and pressures of childcare.This means that there has not yet been a distinctive individualization of perceptions at the family level in Chinese society.The combination of traditional norms and real-life arrangements on childbearing-age women 's fertility desire of the second child,and the individualized tendency of the fertility of the population,is more a symptom of strategic choice,which is an important feature of East Asia's 'compressed modernity'.