A Study On Child Care Policy In China

Since the mid-20th century, a worldwide trend is the responsibility for child care traditionally provided by family was gradually released, more or less go towards the defamilialization stage. This paper take China’s child care for example, attempts to answer the following three core issues:Why the trend was happen? How did the state redistribute the responsibility of child care? And what social consequences were led? Through studying the origin, content and impact of child care policy in China, and taking the child care as a lens, the paper tries to explore the relations among gender, family and state.This research found that since 1949 there are two main motivations for state involvement in the child care are to liberate women and women labor force, and the perception that children before compulsory school age are in need of education. In the first three decades after the founding of New China, the first motive is more prominent, and in the last three decades the second the main motive shifted to the second. However, state intervention does not mean that the perception of child care is public responsibility has risen. Whether how to meet the care meets which led by women working out, or to meet the needs of children receiving early childhood education, the state tend to combine them deeply with family responsibilities.The least intervention position which the state taking on child care, reflected in the social policy is not taking action or taking less action. First, the state seldom consider via the general work legislation to promote the carer aspects of parenthood. Second, almost no consideration the difficulties men and women balance the paid work and care work are different, and no taking an effort to influence the division of labor at home and to change the gender balance of caring responsibilities. Third, selectively to provide public child care services, high-quality, affordable "care services" shortages persist.State intervention in the field of child care is largely produced unequal social consequences:First, gendered caring responsibility assumption hinder the realization of equal employment opportunities for women, also led to the men get on unequal parental rights. Second, opportunity to benefit is inequality among different classes. Higher socio-economic status of the family and women benefited more, and stratification in the intergenerational transmission. Third, increasing the urban-rural inequality, care responsibilities in urban families were more shared by state, and bring rural children an unequal childhood.In view of new child care arrangements needs resulted by the social and economic changing, this study presents a "mixed care" system. In the "mixed care" system, involve not only the responsibility boundary between family and state, but also the gender balance of caring.