China: Too Many Men
March 20th, 2008
Submitted By: Amy Linker
We have all heard of the one-child policy that was enacted in China in 1979 by Deng Xiaoping. This policy has caused many problems for the Chinese people. One such problem is discussed in the post, Little Emperors (see April 26, 2007). Another problem is discussed in length in CBS’s 60 Minutes Report: China: Too Many Men.
This article and news report states that there are 120 boys born for every 100 girls. This imbalance has come about due to a mass number of abortions of female fetuses (over 8 million in the first 20 years of this laws enactment). The abortion issue became such an problem that finding out the sex of your unborn child through an ultrasound became illegal. This problem stems from an age old tradition of sons taking care of their parents when they get too old to care for themselves. This, male dominance in the family, and the expectation of a large dowry from a bride, has made sons more valuable than daughters.
Oddly enough, with a surplus of over 40 million bachelors, the tables have turned. Baby girls are now more valuable, although the Chinese still have it engrained in their minds that boys are more desirable. Families want their sons to marry, as women have a pacifying effect on testosterone ridden males. Such a gender imbalance causes an increase in male lead violent crimes and activities that China has seen since the law was enacted. Only men that are well off have ease finding a bride these days in China.
Many other problems have arisen with this newfound desire for girls, such as girls being sold off for marriage, kidnapping, and sexual slavery. Poor folks from the country side are easily persuaded to sell their baby girls for food or money.
“The Chinese government confiscated a large plastic bag full of 28 girl babies, ranging in age from 2 to 5 months,” said Hudson.
The baby girls, whose photos were posted on the Internet, were found stuffed together in plastic bags lashed onto the roof rack of a cross-country bus. Family members had sold them to traffickers for as little as $8 apiece.
For more information on this problem check out the article: Babies in Tote Bags Lead to Gangs Arrest
This gender imbalance does not exist solely in China. There is also a similar imbalance in India. The reasons for such an imbalance in India are very much the same. Boys are valued more than girls. Although, India does not have a one-child policy, this problem still persists due to aborted female fetuses. For more on India’s gender imbalance see the articles, India: Abortion of Female Fetuses Leads to Gender Imbalance and, For India’s Daughters, A Dark Birth Day.
I could not imagine such a gender discrepancy in the United States. Although, our MBA program and most other MBA programs in addition to the professional work environment has a similar gender imbalance. I wonder if this is an implication that we too value men more than women, even though it is too a much smaller degree. Will the value of gender ever balance out and if so, how will it change business and the work environment, since these currently are male dominated areas?
Some additional questions to think about:
China has been taking measures to change the problems that have occurred from the one-child policy (they have not yet reversed the policy itself), such as trying to up the value of daughters by making annual payments to families with a girl, and subsidizing school costs for female students. These initiatives are helping to a very small degree. What do you think could be done to solve the problems that stem from the one-child policy?
What do you think may be some future implications, besides a rise in violent crime, on Chinese society from this gender imbalance?
Do you think this will affect the economy or business in China further down the road?
What effects will this have on an already male dominated business society?
Will the Chinese military pose more of a threat with an increasing number of expendable lives as more men, who are not able to marry and start a family, join the military?
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, Beijing, China
8 Comments Add your own
1. Andria Greenlee | March 20th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Very interesting post Amy. Here’s a suggestion for China, send some of those men over here! Just kidding, the CBS article does raise a serious issue for the future of women in Chinese business. I rarely think about my gender as a factor in my job marketability, as all of the women I know my age have gone to college, and most to graduate school. I wonder how Chinese universities view this male surplus. Are they admitting equal amounts of men and women to their programs, despite the imbalance in population? It is important that the Chinese encourage female education, as these universities currently hold China’s future management talent. Without equal representation in universities, female infiltration into business will be limited.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out over our lifetime. The chances of having a male vs. female baby with only one shot are 50/50 so I don’t see how the female population will catch up with the one baby per family law.
With the massive capitalization that is occurring in China, its leaders are being exposed to many cultures where women are sitting as CEO of major companies. Hopefully this will help China realize that not only are women necessary to bear children, they are also a huge untapped resource for business development.
2. Sin-Yaw Wang | March 20th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Gender imbalance tends to fix itself over time.
3. Andrew Steen | March 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
That’s awful. There must be a better way to control population than by killing female babies.
Hey Amy, your post is similar to mine in a few ways. (below yours on the main blog)
4. Sarah Ybarra | March 21st, 2008 at 11:27 am
Too many men… doesn’t sound like a problem to me! There are definitely gender imbalances here in the U.S., and all over the world. I think this can be attributed to the fact that males and females have assumed traditional roles for many years. These roles have created norms by which our society lives by. American men are often regarded as more valuable than women, who have an equal level of skill, in the workplace. However, with more women taking on higher level positions things have, and will continue to improve. Women are creating more opportunities for themselves and causing the imbalance to level out a bit. Unfortunately, this is not the case throughout the world. there are many countries such as China that have not been as progressive and continue to devalue females. It makes me very sad to know that parent are selling their daughters, and that some of these babies are being killed. It is disturbing to see such disregard for human lives, regardless of sex. The disproportionate number of males to females has caused the demand for women to increase. I bet we will begin to see a decrease in the dowry paid by a bride’s family. This rise in female’s value certainly doesn’t apply to all aspects of Chinese life. I think that the mere fact that the value of women is based on having sufficient brides for men gives a pretty good indication of a woman’s traditional role in Chinese society.
5. Witold Sadowski | March 21st, 2008 at 2:30 pm
According to this article by ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ReproductiveHealth/story?id=3024044&page=1), pollution levels maybe to blame for the recent decline ratio of male to female births (less males to females born)… so maybe with all the pollution currently being generated in China, this will actually FIX the imbalance problem.
Maybe it’s true… every cloud (or be it a smog haze) has it’s silver lining.
6. gary chou on his blackberry | March 21st, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Amy did you write this post? It was very well written!
I really don’t understand why would people in India and China value boys over girls. I personally value girls far, far more than boys. In fact, I wish there is an opposite gender imbalance in our program. One could only wish.
Ok fine, I was just kidding. I can’t believe that they put babies in plastic bag on top of bus…!?!? That is just unthinkable!
This is an example of people interfering nature and while they think they are smart and that they have come up with this great idea and elaborate system of ensuring the country not overpopulation, and at the end it comes back to hunt them.
I too think an all man society is extremely dangerous. Women serve many function in a society men are insufficient to serve. The most important one, from evolution biology point of view, is the continuance of life.
Men are strong and tough, they fight with pride. They are good at getting things done, dangers out of the way, but they cannot swallow shame and loss. Women on the other hands are flexible, soft, and in that they have strength and persistence.
When a man loses everything, he commits suicide, because his strongness when broken, is forever crushed. Like steel, it might penetrate rock, but when it breaks, it breaks hard. Women are like water. They are soft and they can’t fight as hard, but they don’t fall down or commit suicide. When they fail, they can better endure the shame and low and sustain life and continue new life.
I think this has to do with how they reproduce too. Men only need 5 minutes to reproduce (well maybe 2 hours for me) and women take 10 month. The implication is that women are given with a much stronger sense of duty to raise offspring. Mothers generally care about their newborn more than fathers. A society without enough wives/mothers will have unhealthy reproductive culture. A society without enough males on the other hand is less dangerous, because women value harmony and teamwork than men. Men need people to loop up to them and praise and worship them while women are more emotionally self-sufficient.
A society with a lot more women has been the norm throughout history due to warring. Generally speaking polygamy comes out of too many men die from wars. Perhaps what China should do is a reversed polygamy. But if they do that, maybe girls in our program will all pursue their MBA degree in China instead.
Jokingly,
7. Robyn Bowie | March 21st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
A country with too many men is a scary thought. Unfortunately female infanticide has existed throughout the world for a long time. It is definitely attitudes in these cultures that value men more than women that need to be changed. The Community Services Guild group that operates in India has a good tactic of teaching young girls and their mothers about the value of women. The attitude changes will come easier with the next generations, especially in places where it is already so deeply ingrained with the older generations. However, the governments of these places need to help give females more value by taking some of the burden off of the families. Offering money to families with female children is a good start, but it needs to be better implemented, so it is an easier option than simply aborting the female fetuses. Also, laws regarding gender-selective abortion need to much stricter, as do laws about illegally performed abortions for the safety of the mothers. Female infanticide is a huge problem, which needs to be addressed on many levels by both of these countries, especially as they become more and more important on the world stage.
8. Simeon Trieu | March 24th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Tote bags. Now there’s a novel idea. I never knew they even had this kind of industry. Rather than kill your baby, why not sell your baby to a baby smuggler? I suppose you could consider it a better alternative than infanticide. I do think, however, that this is more of a problem among the rural, uneducated people. University educated people understand the ramifications of such an action. But unfortunately, only about 10% of Chinese attempt or complete the university. Again, as we see from China as well as India, education holds the key to the society’s problems on many levels. Now we begin to understand why education reform is among the leading changes Chinese want to see in their society.
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