Chen Yaya on Single Mothers

Chen Yaya, “Will the Arrival of the Three-Child Policy Open up New Opportunities for Single Mothers?”[1]
 
Introduction by David Ownby
 
Introduction
 
Chen Yaya is a researcher on gender equality at the Institute for Literary Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and in 2015 published a book on sexual violence, entitled How Intimate Relations Can Hurt Us:  94 Cases of Sexual Violence.  In an interview with Chen on the website of Yummy, a women’s pleasure group 女性愉悦社区, we learn that Chen spends much of her life as an online activist for a variety of feminist causes.   
 
The text translated here clearly grows out of this activism.  Taking advantage of official efforts to boost China’s birth rate, Chen argues that if the government genuinely wants to reverse China’s recent demographic decline, then it could do worse that to make it easier for nonconventional couples, or even single mothers, to have babies.  Chen notes that while certain, more “enlightened” cities, have taken what we might call “baby steps” in this direction, it is nonetheless clear that there remain any number of obstacles, and single mothers are often shamed, shunned, and asked to pay the same (or similar) fines as did couples who violated the one-child policy in the period before it this policy was changed.
 
Chen notes that the percentage of nonmarital births has increased considerably in many OECD countries over the past few years (see the report here), suggesting that she is not simply tilting at windmills, but admits as well that nonmarital births remain relatively rare in Confucian countries like South Korea or Japan.  She grounds her arguments not in worldwide “trends,” but in her conviction that everyone should be able to pursue the lifestyle of her choice without fear of government intervention or social stigma.  She knows that this will not happen overnight in China, but hopes to hasten such changes with her activism and research.  It is interesting to note that it is possible to make such provocative arguments publicly in China.
 
Translation by Selena Orly and David Ownby
 
In recent years, as China’s fertility rate has continued to decline, fertility policy has been adjusted and restrictions on fertility have gradually been liberalized. After allowing couples who were themselves only children to have two children beginning in 2013, in 2016, authorities granted permission for all married couples to have two children. In November of 2020, the "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Visionary Goals for 2035" explicitly mentioned the need to "increase the flexibility of our fertility policy."  In July of 2021, the “Decision of the State Council of the CCP Central Committee on Optimizing Fertility Policy for Long-term Balanced Population Development” proposed the implementation of the three-child policy and emphasized that the objective of fertility policy is "to satisfy the diverse needs of the masses in terms of fertility".
 
However, in successive revisions of the fertility policy, it is consistently assumed that a “couple” will give birth to the children in question, which means that in practice, many provinces and cities still regard nonmarital childbirth as a violation of the family planning policy, which is injurious to the rights and interests of single mothers, who may not be able to take maternity leave, or benefit from maternity insurance, etc., and may even encounter penalties, such as the child’s being denied household registration 户口 and being required to pay social compensation fees 社会抚养费.[2] So the question is, will this most recent adjustment to fertility policy bring new opportunities for single mothers?
 
Can our Society Accommodate Single Mothers?
 
In discussions of nonmarital childbirth, the Jilin Provincial Regulations on Population and Family Planning, adopted in 2002, are often mentioned, because they state that "women who have reached the legal age of marriage, who decide not to marry, and who have no children, may use legally-approved, medically-assisted reproductive technology in order to have a child." While "reached the legal age of marriage" and "have no children" are easy to understand here, requiring that the woman decide never to marry and to adopt medically assisted reproduction is excessively harsh. It reflects a clear tendency that expects women to have children within the bounds of marriage, and makes limited concessions to their desire to have children only if they decide never to marry.

Although the Jilin document is in conflict with regulations on assisted reproduction (currently, assisted reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination are only available to couples), which means that it exists in name only and has little practical effect, the document nonetheless sparked a great deal of debate in public and academic circles when it was announced. Some scholars, such as Xu Yumei 徐玉梅and Liu Xianliang 刘宪亮, oppose the idea, believing that allowing single women to have children violates the basic spirit of the law and deprives children of certain rights.  There was also quite an uproar for a time in public opinion.
 
In 2006, a female netizen named "Sweet Potato Pig 地瓜猪" broke up with her boyfriend and planned to give birth to a child alone, and in order to record this experience, she created her “single mother blog,” which quickly attracted widespread attention. Media reported that the blog received more than 300,000 hits in the first month, and continued to attract followers. In commentary on the blog, there was no lack of criticism and opposition to her, and even those who were not opposed nonetheless had reservations about such behavior. For example, Zhou Xiaozheng 周孝正, director of the Institute of Law and Sociology at Renmin University, argued that “unwed mothers" should be tolerated but not encouraged.
 
Over time, however, public attitudes have shifted. In 2015, the "unwed mother" Wu Xia 吴霞launched an online crowdfunding campaign to raise 40,000 RMB in "social compensation fees" for her nonmarital child.  The appeal raised over 9,000 RMB in one night. Some lawyers argue that crowdfunding is illegal 不合理, but the positive attitude of netizens shows that many people are sympathetic to the plight of those who give birth out of wedlock and express some understanding and support for nonmarital childbirth. This trend seems to be verified by studies of the subject, such as Wang Chenxi's 王晨曦analysis of China Youth Daily's coverage of unmarried mothers over the past 20 years, in which she found that the media image of unmarried mothers has gradually become more positive.
 
In 2016, the "Single Women's Reproductive Rights Concern Group," a private initiative, released the "Survey Report on the Status of Reproductive Rights and Legal Policies of Single Women in China," which referenced a “Survey on Public Attitudes Toward Single Women's Reproduction” that was conducted through an online questionnaire. In the survey, 2,801 valid questionnaires were received, of which 86.9% supported single women’s giving birth and 58.9% strongly supported it. This at least suggests that Internet users concerned about this topic already evince a high level of acceptance of single women's reproductive rights, although public attitudes are not yet clear.

We should note as well that this positive and supportive attitude may be influenced by other factors. Online discussions suggest that many people seem to think that nonmarital childbirth is the result of a conscious decision between a single woman and a single man, or a birth by a single woman alone through artificially assisted reproductive technology, and that these two forms do not pose much of a challenge to traditional families. Therefore, at a seminar sponsored by the “Single Women's Reproductive Rights Concern Group”, I asked the question: "Would public support be so high if single women were to have children in partnership with married men?"

Although it was not possible to find detailed statistics on the topic, in reality, it does not appear to be uncommon for single women to have children with married men. In a case study of unwed mothers, a researcher spent nine months trying to interview such mothers, reaching out to nearly one hundred who were active in different online groups. In the end only 12 agreed to talk to her, of whom 8, or 67%, indeed had had a child with a married man. Given the stigma attached to cases like these, it may well be that the percentage of such individuals among single mothers who are active online may be even higher.

Some people have difficulty accepting nonmarital childbirths, mainly because they fear that liberalizing such births will pose challenges to traditional families, such as causing thee break up of marriages. At the same time, we also need to see that as society develops, people are becoming more demanding in their emotional lives and are no longer confined to the traditional family model. Instances of divorce, reconfigured families, and those committed to remaining single are all on the rise. Children born within marriage are also more likely to become single parents as a result of parental divorce, or to enter a reconfigured family as their parents remarry. The situation with nonmarital childbirth is on a par with this. For all kinds of complex family forms, we should focus on how to protect the rights and interests of each of them, especially the vulnerable ones, rather than restricting the freedom of individual choice.
 
Some see the acceptance of nonmarital childbirths as encouraging polygamy. But in reality procreation involving single women and married men is very different from polygamy or concubinage in the old society, in that its patterns are more complex and each person's situation is different. Thus the acceptance of nonmarital childbirth is not an attempt to revive feudal marriage, but rather an acceptance of the plurality of individual choice. In a "the other woman" WeChat group that I moderate, there are occasional discussions about childbirth, from which it is clear that in cases of discrimination against nonmarital childbirths, extramarital partners (and even children) are often stigmatized and their rights are more likely to be compromised, an issue that should be of concern to women's rights workers.
 
Single Mothers’ Rights’ Struggles, Progress, and Obstacles 
 
With the gradual liberalization of the childbirth policy, the restrictions on nonmarital childbirths have been relaxed accordingly. The social acceptance of single mothers has increased, and their own awareness of their rights is growing. Many of the institutional barriers that previously affected single mothers are being removed through the efforts of single mothers and their supporters. The current focus of the fight for nonmarital childbirth rights is mainly in the area of maternity insurance, and Guangdong and Shanghai have received much attention for providing maternity insurance to some single women. However, if we carefully analyze the current situation in these two places, we still find many problems remaining.

In the latest revision (November 2020) of the “Guangdong Provincial Regulations on Population and Family Planning,” the section dealing with nonmarital childbirth reads, "in the case of a first child born without the parents’ having registered their marriage, the parents should be directed to register the marriage in accordance with the law" and, in the event of the birth of second or third child, the parents are also required to pay social compensation fees. Although the wording of the document has been changed from the stricter "they should be ordered" to marry to the relatively mild "they should be directed", it still reflects the tendency to promote the idea that childbirth occurs within marriage. This shows that nonmarital childbirth is not officially recognized in Guangdong's local childbirth policy, even if relevant management measures have been relaxed.

In 2016, the “Interim Management Measures of the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission on Birth Registration and Approval of Reproduction” clearly stated that "a birth registration system is implemented for couples who have their first and second children," and approval is no longer required (“approval” refers to the case of a remarried couple wishing to have children, or that of parents whose child has a disability or who has died, etc.), and notes that this method also applies to "first and second children whose parents have no marriage registration.” Subsequently, there have been single mothers in Guangdong who have applied for maternity insurance after registration, but in their application practice, there have been administrators who do not follow the rules, and the process has not always been smooth.
 
In this regard, the situation in Shanghai is even more uncertain. In December of 2020, the Shanghai Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau issued a notice to the effect that “the review of the family planning status for those applying for maternity insurance” would be removed from the list of items required by local government offices. Several single mothers subsequently found that they no longer needed to submit proof of marriage when applying for maternity insurance and thus have successfully obtained it, and Zhang Meng 张萌, the single mother who has appeared in the media many times and has been actively fighting for maternity insurance through legal means, finally obtained these benefits. However, the situation suddenly changed in mid-March, when some single mothers' applications were rejected on the grounds that they gave birth out of wedlock.

Obviously, because local documents remain unclear about the legality of nonmarital childbirth, there is similarly no clear language about certain rights and benefits for single mothers, such as maternity insurance, which poses a significant challenge for single mothers seeking such benefits. In some larger, more open cities, single mothers have more access to maternity insurance as maternity policies are adjusted and the process of applying for maternity insurance is simplified, but there is still considerable uncertainty involved, which results in many single mothers’ not receiving their benefits.

Judging from all indications, further adjustments to childbirth policies will lead to greater tolerance of nonmarital childbirth, and reforms of related issues, such as the 2016 clarification that children born out of wedlock can apply for household registration, and the 2021 proposal to abolish social compensation fees and to “sort through and get rid of such penalties and regulations, so that the birth status of the individual is irrelevant to their household registration, education, and eventual employment” will also further improve the plight of single mothers. However, because nonmarital childbirth conflicts to some extent with traditional family values, it may not be explicitly recognized in policy documents, but will remain in a gray area for a longer period of time and thus still be treated differently to some extent.
 
Nonmarital Childbirth: A New Way to Increase Fertility?
 
After the issuing the three-child policy, some places have announced measures to encourage childbirth. For example, Beijing stipulated that those having three children can enjoy an additional 30 days of maternity leave, and Panzhihua city, in Sichuan province, decided to give families with two or more children 500 yuan per child per month until the children are 3 years old. I imagine that similar measures will continue to be introduced. However, can these measures really stimulate people to have three children? Many people are not optimistic. Studies carried out before the issue of the full two-child policy suggest that the level of willingness to have children among people of childbearing age is low and remains stable: the lifetime willingness among all people of childbearing age to have two children is stable at about 55%, and given the decline in the proportion of people willing to have three children or more, the difference between lifting the childbirth restrictions and implementing the full two-child policy is not significant, which implies that the three-child policy will not bring about a substantial increase in the birth rate.
 
So, in addition to increasing the reproductive support provided to couples and doing everything possible to increase their willingness to have children, what else can the government do? From the perspective of the experience of some developed countries in the West, the contribution of nonmarital childbirth in maintaining a relatively high birth rate cannot be overlooked. For example, in the mainly developed countries belonging to the OECD, the percentage of nonmarital births rose from 6% in 1960 to 40.3% in 2016.  So could nonmarital births become a new source of fertility in China?

While nonmarital pregnancies in China are also on the rise, in contrast to the West, China’s nonmarital pregnancies have a high rate of marriage conversion, with nearly 60% of such cases marrying during the pregnancy and nearly 70% eventually getting married. This means that the association between marriage and childbearing is not broken and that the increase in pregnancies outside marriage is mainly confined to a transitional state before marriage, and has not become a substitute for it. Clearly, nonmarital childbirths will not be a desirable option if they are not publicly recognized by society and the stigma persists (especially since the stigma attached to births between single and married people is even worse).
 
At present, Chinese women, especially urban women, are increasingly delaying the age of first marriage and first childbirth, and especially in economically developed mega-cities, the phenomenon of late marriage and late childbirth is fairly universal. For example, the average age at first marriage for women with household registration in Shanghai is 29+, and the average age at first childbirth is 30+. Some scholars have argued that postponing the age of marriage will also lead to a decrease in the desire to have children. For example, Yang Yinan's 阳义男research shows that for every year the age of first marriage is postponed, the willingness to bear children decreases by 0.54%.  In addition, some studies have found that the percentage of women born after 1970 that remain unmarried for life has increased, suggesting that the tradition of universal marriage for Chinese women may be broken.  In such circumstances, if a woman still prefers to be married to have children, she may miss her best childbearing years, experiencing difficulties in future births and even running the risk of life-long infertility.

The low rate of nonmarital childbirths is not unique to China, but also exists to varying degrees in Japan and South Korea, and is often attributed to the influence of Confucian culture in East Asian countries. Perhaps in recognition of this, South Korea's fertility policy has shifted in recent years. In the past, the government focused fertility support on traditional families, but the third five-year plan, announced in 2016, broadens the perspective to macro-level structural social reforms and attempts to build a diversified policy system on multiple levels. Specifically, it expands support for traditional families to support for diverse families, strengthens support for single-parent families, eliminates discrimination against non-marital and cohabiting families, and aims to develop a more inclusive view of the family, etc.
 
At present, South Korea’s new policy has failed to produce a significant effect in raising the fertility rate, but this does not mean that the reform has failed, as societies and cultures are unlikely to change overnight. A study of unmarried mothers published in 2018 showed that South Korean society is heavily resistant to nonmarital births, and single mothers in Korea face strong opposition from their families of origin in both childbirth and parenting, which causes them great psychological distress; single mothers in Japan are more supported by their families of origin, but the discrimination against single mothers in fertility policies is more severe, so single mothers in these two countries are more likely to fall into poverty.
 
In China, if we want the nonmarital childbirths to become a new source of population growth in the future, we may need to further rethink our basic ideas about childbirth and fertility, promote a pluralistic view of the family, and carry out a more thorough reform of fertility policies and related measures, with a view to gradually changing our current emphasis on the link between marriage and childbirth. At the same time, we must also recognize that nonmarital childbirth often means that women take on greater responsibility in raising children, which is a heavy burden for them, and that many of the measures currently proposed to increase the childbirth rate, such as shared parental leave for couples, fail to take these special families into account, let alone provide them with more support and services, a situation in urgent need of change.
 
Notes

[1] 陈亚亚, “三孩政策来了，是否会给单身母亲带来新的机会?,” published online on the Pengpai Thought Market on September 9, 2021.  The text is no longer available on Pengpai’s WeChat platform (original link here) because it apparently violates China’s Internet regulations, but it is still available on the Pengpai app (the link attached to the Chinese title) as well as elsewhere on the web (but without the author’s name).

[2]Translator’s note:  ‘‘’Social compensation fees’ are penalties or fines that local governments assess against couples who give birth to an unapproved child.  For certain couples, these fines pose a dilemma between undergoing an unwanted abortion and incurring devastating financial costs. Often with court approval, family planning officials are allowed to take ‘forcible’ action against families who are not willing or able to pay the fines. These forcible actions include the confiscation of family belongings and the destruction of the violators’ homes."  See https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4b6fe1b9d.pdf .