A bigger crisis than the collapse of fertility: the consequences of gender imbalance, are spreading...

Blue oak

2024-06-27 17:18Creators in the field of education

In China, there is a long-standing tradition of preference for sons. However, in recent years, the imbalance in the ratio of males and females in newborns has become more and more intense, accompanied by a decline in fertility rates. The consequences of an imbalance in the gender ratio are spreading.

Author: Lizheng Mom, Senior Children's Emotional Intelligence Management Guidance Consultant of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and Children's Reading Promoter of the Library Association of China.

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A friend who has been a teacher in kindergarten for ten years said that now the kindergarten has changed from "hard to find" to "hard to find".

But at the same time as kindergarten enrollment is cold, there is an invisible but serious problem that plagues them-

There is an imbalance between men and women.

There is an imbalance in the ratio of men and women in kindergartens, to what extent?

"There are 30 children in a class, 21 boys and 9 girls." "All 20 of us are boys and only five are girls."

"There's only one girl in the class."

This is not only the case in kindergartens, but also in primary schools.

Basically, there are seven or eight or even a dozen more boys than girls in each class.

So much so that if there is a transfer student, the head teacher's first reaction is to ask, "Boys and girls?" "If it's a boy, you want to say no right away.

After all, how difficult it is to manage a class with more men and fewer women, who leads who knows. What's more, there are so many male babies with such a huge disparity......

The author, who has two sons at home, also discovered that every time he goes out in a group, one, two, three, four, five...... It's all boys. The most exaggerated thing is that once, five families got together, and all 10 of them were boys!

The scarcity of female babies is no longer news, but an increasingly prominent reality.

The comeback of patriarchy,

The truth is astonishing

Chinese have a long history of patriarchal preference, but since 2006, the sex ratio at birth on the mainland has been declining, from deformity to slowly approaching the normal range recommended by the United Nations Population Fund (103-107).

However, according to the National Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Health Undertakings, between 2019 and 2022, the sex ratio of males and females at birth across the country increased by a continuous small margin, both above 110, which is equivalent to 100 girls vs. 110 boys, which has exceeded the normal range.

But something even more magical happened after the release of the third child, and the ratio of three children to men in the country was as high as 133:100. Among them, the ratio of three children to men in Hubei is as high as 177:100, and the ratio of four children to women in Shanghai is as high as 216.6:100.

Although equality between men and women has always been emphasized, with the release of the second and third children, it also implies that families who originally had no chance of being a man finally have the opportunity to chase men to "make up for regrets".

After all, anyone with a discerning eye can see it,

Without human intervention, it is impossible for the third child to have such an astonishing sex ratio.

In the past, the saying that "the poorer you are, the more you like to have boys, and the richer you are, the more you like to have girls", but this is not the case.

The 2020 census data has subverted our stereotype of preference for sons over women in rural areas.

The data show that the sex ratio at birth for newborns in urban areas is 112.15, while in rural areas it is 111.90, which is lower than that in urban and rural areas. Taking the seven wealthy provinces and cities as an example, except for Guangdong and Fujian, the two traditional "male" provinces, although the ratio of first and second children in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin is maintained at 110:100, but the ratio of third children in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Tianjin is above 140:100.

It can be said that in the rich provinces,

Most of the first and second children can still insist on going with the flow, but the third child can see the traditional background of wanting to have a boy.

"The family has a throne to inherit." In the more affluent the region, the more noticeable.

Even in "I dream of being reincarnated in the next life to become an only daughter in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai!" The real data also shows an extremely cruel truth: "The only daughter in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai has always been an individual phenomenon. Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai families who can chase three children are not soft at all when chasing boys. ”

Taking Shanghai, which has always been the most internationally connected, for example, its sex ratio at birth has also been "soaring" in recent years.

The efforts made for "Zhaodi" have been higher than the national average since the second child, with the third child as high as 152.78, beating Beijing (119) and Guangzhou (148), and the sex ratio of the fourth child soaring to 216.67, ranking first in the country.

Looking at the data of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it is also comparable, the sex ratio of the second child at birth can still maintain the relatively normal data of 105.59 and 108.27, but the sex ratio of the third child has soared to 146.55 and 143.1 respectively, breaking everyone's impression of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai as the least patriarchal for many years.

Some netizens even joked - "If you go to reincarnate as a girl in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai in your next life, you may not have the opportunity to say 'Hi' to the world." ”

Wisdom Valley Trends summarizes this as follows:

The only daughter in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai was only born at the right time, and under the interference of the family planning policy, the special phenomenon of being born in a wealthy family can be described as "the right time, the right place and the right people".

However, with the blessing of the three-child policy, the "traditional conservative forces" that were once hidden under the surface of the water have reared their heads again.

Strong traditional cultural inertia, again

It exposes the deep-rooted patriarchal mentality of Chinese people.

It is conceivable that in more areas where sons are originally favored, the pursuit of men will definitely not be inferior to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

On a social platform, casually enter the three words "pick up the male treasure", and the video that came out easily exceeded 100,000 likes. But on the contrary, if you type in the three words "pick up the female treasure", the number of likes on the video that comes out is far less than one-tenth of the male treasure.

In the matter of receiving "good pregnancy", it can already be seen that the expectations of the Chinese people for boys and girls are very different.

the consequences of gender imbalance,

It's spreading everywhere

"So far, China has the longest history of gender imbalance in the world, the largest outbreak area, and the highest peak."

In the book "Research on the Evolution Mechanism of Gender Imbalance in China", published in 2018, the author described the problem of sex ratio in mainland China as follows.

And the famous scholar Wu Xiaobo also bluntly said-

"In China, gender imbalance may be more serious than aging."

In fact, the gender imbalance in the mainland has been as long as 40 years, but parents with post-00s and post-10s boys have to worry.

Because the post-00s and post-10s boys will face the most disparity in gender ratio in history and become the biggest victims of gender imbalance.

By 2020, there will be more than 30 million more men of marriageable age than women in China, meaning that on average, one in five men will not find a spouse. The remaining 30 million men have no wives to marry, and have become "singles" in the traditional sense.

However, the post-00s and post-10s boys will not only face a more severe gender ratio difference in the future, but also a large number of unmarried boys born in the 90s. Their competitors in the marriage market are far more cruel than the figure of 30 million.

The cruel marriage market tests not only the soft power of boys, but also the hard power of the economic foundation.

Behind the "housing prices raised by the mother-in-law" is the sky-high bride price and other problems arising from the imbalance between supply and demand between men and women. Jiangxi, the "big bride price province", won the first place in the country in the sex ratio of newborns with a sex ratio of 122.7. It was followed by Hainan (120.55), Fujian (120.1), Guangdong (117.52) and Hunan (116.91), all of which were patriarchal provinces.

"The highest sex ratio in the country gives a reasonable explanation for the high bride price. As the only region in the country that is siphoned by the six wealthy provinces at the same time, Jiangxi's frenzied outflow of marriageable women, combined with the already few baby girls, has forced local men to repeatedly raise the bride price. ”

The disparity between the rich and the poor and the preference for sons over daughters will lead to a vicious circle in which the poorer areas have more singles and richer areas have more boys.

The demographer solemnly reminded: "If the marriage and childbearing rights of the remaining men are not guaranteed, many social problems will arise, not only the backlog of age and geography, but also the safety and stability of social order and security.

For every 0.01 per cent increase in the gender ratio, violence and property crime will increase by 3 per cent, which must be taken seriously. ”

Some people may say that China, whose fertility rate has plummeted and is already on the verge of the world's second-to-last warning line, will have no one to marry or have children in the future, and whether it will become the second South Korea that is about to destroy the country because of "no child".

But know that the imbalance between men and women is not as simple as we think of "not finding a partner"! Even families with girls can't stay out of the way.

Gender perception bias

Psychology believes that people's perceptions of gender roles are learned through socialization and experience. Observing and learning about the gender behaviors of those around them from an early age can help children form an awareness of their own gender roles.

But in an environment where the ratio of men to women is unbalanced,

Children are not exposed to diverse gender roles, which can easily lead to barriers to their own gender perception and stereotypes of the opposite sex.

Studies have found that children who grow up in an environment with an imbalance between men and women are more likely to be biased against the opposite sex. When you grow up, you have a greater chance of becoming a "celibate".

Affects social skills

Children develop social skills through interaction with others.

But if growing up,

A child's lack of communication and interaction with the opposite sex may affect their diversified social development.

For example, a little girl who has been immersed in the boys' pile for a long time will be more inclined to be a "female man" in her words and deeds, and may lack the ability to establish friendship and communication with girls when she grows up.

Similarly, boys who rarely spend time with girls from an early age tend to feel confused and overwhelmed when dealing with emotional relationships with the opposite sex when they grow up.

When these people become adults,

Vulnerable in both relationships and career development.

Affect your child's mental health

In psychology, the human need to belong to a certain group and hope to be accepted and recognized by that group is called a sense of belonging and identity.

But in an environment where there is an imbalance between men and women, the child is prone to feeling lonely and unaccepted on the side with a small proportion. This lingering sense of isolation can easily affect children's self-confidence and sense of belonging, making them feel a lot of pressure.

Statistics show that:

In schools with a significant gender imbalance, students reported higher levels of psychological stress than in schools with a balanced gender ratio.

The situation of young boys everywhere affects all aspects of our lives, and for children, social, gender perception, emotions and concepts of marriage and love will have an impact.

So Wu Xiaobo bluntly said - "For Chinese, the harm of aging may still be brewing, but the bitter fruit of gender imbalance has been tasted in China since 30 years ago." ”

The dark cloud of gender imbalance has become a major threat that hangs over the head of our great country and has to be ignored. The changes involve multiple levels such as culture, economy, and policy.

How to disperse the dark clouds is a long way to go.

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