Women’s Status, Family Decision-Making and Childbearing in Jiangsu, China

Zhenzhen Zheng, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

China has experienced an obvious fertility drop since the 1990s. Researches showed that social-economic growth played a more significant role than birth control policy in the process. Analysis found that economic indicators are significantly related to total fertility rates in counties of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. However, there is a lack of analysis on the relationship between women’s status and fertility, which has been believed closely related, especially in fertility drop during a demographic transition. This paper will take a close look at the relationship between women’s status, women’s role in family decision making, and their childbearing opinions and intensions, by using a survey data from Jiangsu Province. Multivariate analysis will be used to examine the relationships. The research findings suggested that both economic development and improvement in women’s status have made great contribution to the very low fertility in part of China.