Who made the "leftover women"?

So, yeah - China's heading for the middle income trap. They've had enough economic good fortune to lift the country up this far bot now they're tired. The environment's for shit and they're making neither enough new babies to power the economy as replacement workers nor enough next stage economic products to start earning developed world bucks. They're still getting educated though. And education is the biggest prophylactic around. Enough money plus enough education usually turns off the marry and make babies system, but this country still has the leftover woman notion. What if it's a deliberate policy?

China's Totally Misguided Campaign to Turn Working Women into Wifeys

China's government has some advice for the country's young, highly educated women: Get married early, or you'll regret it.

The official propaganda puts it more eloquently. "As women age, they are worth less and less," one government article reads. "So by the time they get their M.A. or Pd.D., they are already old, like yellowed pearls."

Another article, published by Xinhua, the state news agency, bluntly demands that women stop being so picky and just settle down: "Does [the] perfect man exist? Maybe he does exist, but why on earth would he want to marry you?"

A better question is why China's leaders would want to push a generation of professional women back into the home at a time when Japan and South Korea are desperately trying to leverage the economic potential of women workers. At the World Economic Forum in January, for example, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe noted that increasing women's labor participation could boost Japan's GDP by as much as 16 percent. Other studies suggest that restricting job opportunities for women costs Asia $46 billion a year...

I actually did a whole class on this and really researched the subject. It is a government policy and a gov't catch-phrase propagated by the woman's federation group (which is part of the party). They haven't really kept it a secret. It came out of a gov't policy that the quality of marriage was dropping in China as women were becoming more educated and what-not. And even though the rate of single women in their 30's is very low in China (it's about 25% in America, close to 50% in the UK but near 9% in China) the gov't realized they problem with the huge population disparity to begin with and they don't want it to grow cause they gotta look out for #1 (men).

Although the good news is that the women's federation has finally recently decided to stop using the word "leftover women" as they got a lot of push back from the (mostly educated) women and so they are not saying it anymore though the idea has gotten ahold in society. And they are still propagating the idea of less education is a good thing.


Also the "guys need a house before marriage" has now been proven to be a gov't propaganda policy to ensure the booming house market. And the interesting thing is the gov't has not addressed it towards young people, who might be savvy enough to see it, but they have been steadily feeding it to the older generation who then feels the pressure, and will do anything for their kids. There are some really interesting articles about that, with statistics and such about how it has been incredibly effective with the older generation.

I actually did a whole class on this and really researched the subject. It is a government policy and a gov't catch-phrase propagated by the woman's federation group (which is part of the party). They haven't really kept it a secret. It came out of a gov't policy that the quality of marriage was dropping in China as women were becoming more educated and what-not. And even though the rate of single women in their 30's is very low in China (it's about 25% in America, close to 50% in the UK but near 9% in China) the gov't realized they problem with the huge population disparity to begin with and they don't want it to grow cause they gotta look out for #1 (men).

Although the good news is that the women's federation has finally recently decided to stop using the word "leftover women" as they got a lot of push back from the (mostly educated) women and so they are not saying it anymore though the idea has gotten ahold in society. And they are still propagating the idea of less education is a good thing.


Also the "guys need a house before marriage" has now been proven to be a gov't propaganda policy to ensure the booming house market. And the interesting thing is the gov't has not addressed it towards young people, who might be savvy enough to see it, but they have been steadily feeding it to the older generation who then feels the pressure, and will do anything for their kids. There are some really interesting articles about that, with statistics and such about how it has been incredibly effective with the older generation.

Woah Borkya, that is some heavy stuff. Completely fascinating.

As a single woman in china who ain't getting any younger, I have been especially interested in this topic. 

brillaint! so please share some of your links.I would like to share them with some female students who are "taking the heat" right now.

yes ma'am.

http://shanghaiist.com/2012/10/12/the_all-china_womens_federation_pro.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/opinion/global/chinas-leftover-women.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1&

http://www.chinahush.com/2013/06/13/has-china-exaggerated-the-leftover-women-problem/?utm_source=Sinocism+Newsletter&utm_campaign=48c3c75e1b-Sinocism06_15_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_171f237867-48c3c75e1b-29597833

And I like this one because it has a chart that shows how it is women CHOOSING to not get married for a variety of reasons. Not left over at all, but choosing independence. http://shanghaiist.com/2012/03/07/infographic_the_plight_of_chinas_le.php

Each of these articles has a bunch of links you can follow too.

Leftovers 剩女 and why many westerners will still marry them.

(Opinions of the writer in this blog don't represent those of China Daily.)

Or, probably, anyone else.




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