A Shortage of Chinese Women is Making it Hard for Men to Find Wives

China implemented a one-child policy in the 1970s to help control the population growth. For cultural reasons, however, many couples still prefer to have a son so that he can take care of his elderly parents. Family planning is encouraged for all families, in order to keep the birth rate under control.

In a kindergarten in Hui Kan, in the city of Huizhou the shortage of girls is particularly evident. Boys outnumber girls by far. The kindergarten has received more applications from parents for boys than for girls. The school's head teacher Mrs Zheng has noted that "One of our classes has 39 boys and just eight girls. It's a serious problem. When there are more boys than girls, the girls copy the boys and they become more aggressive," she said. It might not seem to be such a big issue right now. After all, these children are just starting kindergarten. But the country is starting to worry about what may happen in the next 20 years or so when these children are grown up and want to get married and settle down. Some estimates suggest that within the next decade or so, there will be 30 million men who will not be able to find a wife. There are various reasons for this imbalance in males and females. The main reason is the abortion of females. Some couples may also fail to report the birth of a female or abandon them in orphanages. In 2005 around 118 boys were born for every 100 girls. In some regions of southern China, in particular Guangdong and Hainan, the figure was even higher with 130 boys born to 100 girls in 2005. The preference for boys has not helped to prevent this growing trend. The repercussions of the preferred one child only policy, which generally equates in the birth of males rather than girls, will see men struggling to find a wife.

It is not just in this kindergarten in Hui Kan that the gender imbalance is noticeable. On the Chinese island of Hainan, there are already a great deal more men than women. Many women have left rural areas in search of work and this has left a great shortage of women to the region's men, who cannot settle down as they would like. Many roles are also reversed, such as more men having to cook for themselves. This can be looked upon as quite shameful, in a society that still prefers to delegate traditional household chores to women.

The situation is already precarious. Men in their thirties are unmarried as they search for a wife and some parents have taken matters into their own hands by trying to matchmake for their sons and find the ideal wife for them. It is not just the lack of females that is creating a problem. The BBC's Daniel Griffiths, reporting in Beijing, stressed that China's one child policy has already led to added pressure of single children as they face the future prospect of providing adequate care and support not just for their parents, but also both sets of grandparents. As they do not have any siblings to help share this responsibility, this care will fall on the shoulders of the single child.

According to the State Population and Family Planning Commission, the solution to this problem lies in developing a "movement to embrace girls...and effectively contain the trend towards greater gender imbalances". The report went on to say that China's current 1.3 billion population is set to increase by 200 million by 2033 and the number of 60-year-olds will embrace 30% of the population by 2040. A further solution put forward is the improvement of China's social security and retirement system. This would help to alleviate some of the strain of single children caring for their nearest relatives. Only time will tell if these policies meet with success.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6254763.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6346931.stm