Sex discrimination has always been a big social problem. In my hometown, a small and comparatively backward city in mountain area in China, many women are still regarded as men’s property and fertility tools. Female is regarded inferior and less important than male.
By Song Chen https://images.app.goo.gl/oasALaPUYgrKhuK86
The phenomenon of patriarchy in rural areas is clearly demonstrated under some government policy. China started family planning in 1980s, stipulating that each couple can only have one child under normal circumstances. Until 2016, two child policy was opened. The essential purpose of family planning is to reduce population growth to maintain social stability and resource allocation. But many people in rural areas evade their social responsibility and pay large penalties to keep giving birth in order to have a son. If their first child is a girl, they will continue to have children until they give birth to a boy. The mothers in the families have less power of speaking and can not make big decisions for their families. They are blamed by their husbands and parents in-law if they did not give birth to a boy. Women are subaltern that lack of power to speak and their opinions are not valued by the families. Girls are regarded as money-losing goods because they will cause big expenses to the family from childhood, but they end up marrying with others, doing housework and making money for her new family. There is a Chinese saying, bring up sons for the purpose of being looked after in old age. Typically, parents live with their sons who are the hope for them when they get old. According to Karen Hardee, Zhenming Xie and Baochang Gu, “China’s one-child policy, however, places women—particularly those in rural areas—in a situation where they are pressured by the government’s childbearing requirements on one side and by society’s preference for sons on the other.”
One of my classmate in middle high school, a nice and kind girl who has two younger sisters and one younger brother, told me that her parents were nice to her and love her but her brother is definitely the favorite child of her parents. Her parents are not wealthy, but they tried they best to raise four children just because they want a son. Even if society is progressing and gender equity has made great progress, the patriarchal consciousness left over for thousands of years still affects many people subconsciously.
Work Cited:
https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/pubs/journals/3006804.pd