With the development of contemporary society, many concepts have changed dramatically, and the definition of women’s social roles have gone through significant changes towards a more open and respectful direction. The most obvious is the change of women's "reproductive responsibility". For a long time in the human history, one of women's greatest value was considered fertility. "Having children" was also the occupation that covered longest passage of a woman’s life, and it was also the most important standard for society to affirm women.
With the changes of the ages, contemporary women's views on fertility have gone through a lot of changes. When you look around us, you will naturally feel that women are no longer the same as they used to be: when you reach a certain age, you get married and start the life mode of housewife and child-rearing. However, more and more women will choose to pursue a more independent life. Taking the pursuit of career as a goal and belief, they will more hope to find a suitable and same frequency partner. At the same time, their hearts do not conflict with late marriage and late childbirth, or even on marriage and infertility.
1、 Current situation of contemporary female fertility
At present, the fertility rate of women in the world is decreasing, and population reduction has become a global trend. From 3.2 in 1990 to 2.5 nowAs the world's most populous country, China's figure fell to only about 1.6 to 1.7.
According to the data of the Ministry of public security, the number of newborns registered in 2020 was only 10.035 million, a sharp decrease of about 15% compared with 2019. The number of newborns registered by the Ministry of public security in 2019 was 80.5% of the birth population of the Bureau of statistics that year. According to this proportion, the birth population in 2020 may decrease by more than 2million compared with 2019. At present, the fertility situation facing China has three major characteristics: the number of main women of childbearing age has decreased rapidly; The fertility rate fell sharply; Fertility willingness decreased significantly.
What is causing fertility to decline?
First, the awakening of female consciousness. When giving birth to a new life, modern women need to consider their personal life experience. They pay more attention to the pursuit of self-worth, such as the realization of self achievement, career achievement, social value, etc. Whether and when to have children, they are more willing to make choices according to their inner wishes. Childbirth is an integral part of their lives, rather than forced. According to the survey on the current situation of Chinese women's fertility outlook, when women choose to have children, it is also a process of self-cultivation. Their needs for their children are no longer "raising children to prevent old age", but to increase family fun, which is an important part of life, and they are also growing up again at the same time.
In the wake of contemporary women's consciousness, being able to choose not to have children is considered to be the pursuit of women's independence and freedom.
According to the survey on the current situation of Chinese women's fertility outlook, 43.9% of people believe that those women who choose not to have children are "pursuing independence and freedom, which has a great positive impact on society". It can be seen that more and more people no longer regard having children as a necessary thing in their life, and the "independent choice" of not having children has also become more positive, which means that they have more independent choices rather than being limited by objective conditions.
Secondly, the pressure of social environment on raising children. In addition to investing more energy and time, raising children also requires more money. Economic pressure is also the reason why many people choose not to have children. For example, in recent years, the cost of education has risen significantly, medical expenses have risen, prices have soared, and housing loans have risen. The soaring parenting costs make it no longer a matter of personal will to have children. Whether to have children or not and how many children to have should take into account the financial affordability of the family.
In the survey of factors affecting fertility, more than 80% of people believe that economic pressure occupies the first place. It is also based on this that people pay more attention to the pursuit of career. Especially today, with the rising divorce rate, for women, career brings a higher sense of security and achievement than family and having children to some extent.
However, the traditional concept of fertility still exists, especially in the economically underdeveloped remote areas, where family income is low, life security is weak, and the elderly care needs to be taken care of by their children. These places do not pay attention to the education of their children, so the cost of raising children is very low. In this case, the idea of having more children, raising children to protect the elderly, and son preference affect the fertility aspirations of local women. In economically developed areas, women pay more attention to the realization of self-worth. For the problem of having children, more attention is paid not to "birth", but to "education". When women choose to have children, they will more consider the development of their careers, the rise of their careers and the assurance of their personal quality of life. Under such social development and consciousness awakening, the decline of fertility will is inevitable, which is a problem of the whole social system. Without changing the social system that has been formed for many years, a single preferential policy is difficult to reverse the decline of fertility.
2、 Current situation of contemporary women in the workplace
Women have more decision-making power in childbirth, and more women who pursue personal value and career development give up or postpone childbirth opportunities. But will women get more jobs as a result?From a social perspective, No. The current situation of contemporary women in the workplace is not optimistic.
First, women have unequal employment opportunities. The census results in March 2022 showed that China's population reached 1.373 billion, of which women accounted for 48.78%, and a survey showed that the proportion of female college students in China had reached 44%. The above data showed that women were enough to support "half the sky". However, in the actual job market, the employment opportunities of women are far lower than those of men. Although Article 13 of China's labor law stipulates that women enjoy equal employment rights with men. When employing employees, except for the types of work or positions that are not suitable for women as stipulated by the state, it is not allowed to refuse to employ women or raise the employment standards for women on the basis of gender. However, in the actual recruitment, the employer will not indicate the gender requirements in the recruitment advertisement, but will eventually prefer to hire men due to the consideration of fertility costs. This phenomenon is called implicit discrimination. Therefore, women have less employment opportunities than men.
Second, men and women are paid differently for equal work. Generally speaking, education level and personal ability are the key factors that determine work income. However, looking at the talent market at home and abroad, women's salary is generally lower than that of men. The 2021 report on gender pay differences in China's workplace shows that in 2020, the average salary of urban employed women was 6847 yuan, 75.9% of the average salary of men, and the salary gap widened; The higher the salary level, the greater the salary difference between men and women. Even in the United States, where women's rights and equality are more emphasized, the pay gap between men and women is also widening. Compared with men's income, the pay gap between women's executives will reach $0.95 for every $1 earned by men, even if the data are controlled (that is, the gender income gap is $0.05); And in the case of uncontrolled data, for every $1 earned by men, the salary gap will reach a shocking $0.69 (that is, the gender income gap is $0.31).
Third, women are promoted slower than men. Women also tend to move up the career ladder more slowly than men. For example, about the same proportion of men and women start their careers as ordinary contribution employees, that is, non managers. In 2020, 75% of men aged 20 to 29 and 76% of women are contribution workers. However, between the ages of 30 and 44, 36% of men become supervisors or managers, while only 30% of women. Finally, men are twice as likely as women to be directors or executives aged 45 or older. Overall, at all different stages of life, 6% of women can become executive level roles, while the number of men can reach 12%.
Fourth, work family conflict is obvious. Based on the traditional idea of "men in charge of the outside and women in charge of the inside", men are expected to achieve material success, while women are more expected to play the role of caregivers. Therefore, most married women in modern China not only have to undertake work to realize their self-worth, but also take care of their families. However, the society has very high requirements for the time and quality of women's input into the family, while men's too little input into family care will not be biased by the society. In such an environment, professional women are required to bear the same pressure and compete with their male colleagues in the workplace, and play the role of a good wife and mother when they return home. This kind of life is actually a manifestation and way to realize women's value. It can't be denied that it brings satisfaction to women to a certain extent, but at the same time, it inevitably constitutes a restriction on women's life, and greatly hinders them from fulfilling their expected parental or wife duties, which leads to the suffering of these women and the existence of work family conflict. This kind of conflict is difficult to balance. It requires the common understanding and cooperation of family members, as well as learning to ask for help, such as asking housekeeping to undertake housework.
To sum up, the awakening of contemporary women's consciousness makes them better understand how to realize their self-worth and pursue career achievements. However, the current situation of the workplace leads to that women need to invest more time and energy to be seen and reused. Such investment will greatly affect women's reproductive opportunities, and the best reproductive opportunity for women is the most important junior high school, which makes employers prefer to reduce the recruitment of female employees. Therefore, women have fewer job opportunities than men, which makes women more cherish the quality job opportunities they get, and are willing to give up or postpone the reproductive opportunity. The two interact and circulate. To break this interaction, we need to convey the idea of the whole society and give affirmation and respect to women's fertility and value. This is a long-term cultural change.
Reference Material:
1、https://blog.csdn.net/qq_40433634/article/details/116033027"Sea data laboratory"
2、"Analysis and suggestions on the employment situation of contemporary female labor force"
3、"2021 report on gender pay differences in China's workplace"