One Child Policy in China

Rachel Kim
Seoul International School

Abstract

This research paper focuses on China’s one-child policy and its effect on women in the social spheres of the workplace, household, and education. The one-child policy, a policy enforced in 1979, was a policy to control and restrict the rapidly growing population of China. Mao Ze Dong’s rule, which was able to bring up women’s status by various laws and campaigns, was brought back after Mao’s death and the CCP’s rise. Exploring the one-child policy’s impact on women specifically, this paper argues that on the surface, the one-child policy limited women’s participation in the workplace has decreased and the mistreatment they received was similar if not worsened. However, women were also found to benefit from the one-child policy in the household and education. In the household, many mothers have risen in the internal hierarchy of the home as the passion for education has intensified in China. Not only this, the daughters of one-child families were able to receive full attention and education as they were the only child in the house. Comparing women’s status and gender equality before and after Mao’s rule has changed greatly because of the one-child policy.

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