Research about the Quality of Life and Developmental Situation of Chinese Girls

I. Introduction 

Since the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issues surrounding young girls have been attracting increasingly more attention and — with the growing global awareness for gender equality — have also been put on the agendas of governments all over the world. At the Fourth World Conference on Women, in 1995, "young girls" was listed as one of the 12 major concerns in the Beijing Platform for Action. The United Nations Children's Fund also expressed that children are the core of millennium development goals and urged all governments to consider the needs and rights of young girls in different stages of development.

According to the statistics of the sixth nationwide population census in China in 2010, the number of young girls accounted for 46.3% of the total child population. Attaching great importance to children's development and quality of life, the Chinese government has signed and promised to adhere to a number of international conventions and declarations, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Over the past 10 years, a series of laws and regulations related to children — based on the ideas of social justice, equality, children's rights — have been enacted, and issues surrounding young children are gradually being incorporated into China's new policies.

China already has a number of policies related to the protection of children, and the rapid economic development and social progress have provided conditions for the development and quality of life of young girls. But even with such measures, young girls may still be treated unfairly in an obvious or unobvious way in families, schools and society as a whole, because of the existence of the traditional, cultural Chinese concepts of "value the male child only" and "prefer having a boy over a girl" — deeply rooted mentalities that can prevent young women from fulfilling their full potential.

The Third Survey on Chinese Women's Social Status was conducted among children to provide a comprehensive investigation of their quality of life, development, and social involvement.

The survey involved randomly selected children between the ages 10 and 17 in different households.

A total of 19,893 valid completed surveys were returned. Of this sample, girls and boys took the proportions of 45.6 percent and 54.4 percent respectively. The children in urban areas accounted for 49.8 percent while the rural children accounted for 50.2 percent in the sample.

Research Results

From the perspective of gender equality and the development and quality of life of children, the statistics of the questionnaires revealed three principle findings, as follows:

First, the level of development and quality of life among both girls and boys alike is in good condition. Without being influenced by or subjected to gender-based unequal treatment, girls spend more time on their studies than boys and were found to have better educational performance.

Secondly, geographical factors, such as district and nationality, were found to have significant influence on the development and quality of life of young girls. The characteristics of the differences between urban and rural areas are obvious. Generally speaking, compared with Han-nationality girls and young girls living in urban areas, the overall quality of life for minority girls in rural districts and in the west of China is deficient.

Thirdly, even though young girls are not subjected to gender inequality in an obvious way, there are still some obstacles, however subtle they may be, that they must often overcome — namely the influence of traditional concepts or values. Also, compared with boys, girls face a distinct disadvantage with things such as housework and the overall distribution of time, with many still subjected to the negative influence of gender stereotypes. Moreover, within the female contingent, those in rural areas and in west China — and especially minority girls in these places — are shown to have even more disadvantages.

The above research findings are highlighted in the following aspects:

First, the above-described reality manifests itself in China's nutrition and hygiene situation. The nutrition that the girls have is as good as that of boys. Most girls are able to have as part of their diet three kinds of high-protein foods: eggs, dairy products and meat or fish. However, the proportion of these three proteins that rural girls have in relation to boys is lower in rural areas, coming up short at 6.5 percentage points, 16.1 percentage points, and 11.8 percentage points (respectively) below what urban girls are consuming. The proportions of eggs, dairy products and meat or fish consumed by rural girls in west China is 16.5 percentage points, 30.7 percentage points, and 26.4 percentage points (respectively) below those in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, which suggests that the condition of rural girls in west China is worse than others'. As regards nutrition and hygiene, the proportion of ill girls to whom immediate treatment is available is the same as that of the boys. There is no obvious difference between the urban boys and girls nor between the rural boys and girls. However, the condition of the rural children in west China and that in minority regions is worse than that of other children's groups.

The second aspect is girls' enrollment. Most of the girls who participated in the research study are in school, and the data reveals that the percentage of girls who are enrolled in school is 5.6 percentage points higher in urban areas than in rural areas. The rate of educational indicator for girls aged 10 to 14 in elementary and junior high schools is up to 99%, with only a small difference between urban and rural areas. However, the enrollment rate for girls aged of 15 to 17 in cities is 94.7%, which is 15.4 percentage points higher than those in rural areas. The gap between rural and urban areas is bigger in the central (19.8 percentage points) and west (17.5 percentage points) China. According to the statistics, 5.5% of the girls aged 10 to 17 are deprived of education. The percentage of girls who drop out of schools in rural areas is 5.5 points higher than those in urban areas. The proportion of girls who are uneducated because of family accounts for 21.1% among all female respondents, which is 7.1 percentage points higher than that of boys. This indicates that girls are more likely to give up their education for family reasons than boys are.

The third aspect is the performance of girls in school. Girls tend to perform better than boys, and the proportion of girls taking on student leadership roles in class and more-senior positions is higher than that of boys. When broken down by age, the statistics show that girls tend to show more of an advantage at a young age, whereas the gap between girls and boys becomes small at age of 15 to 17. At that age, the ability of boys to take on student leadership roles can reach nearly the same level as that of girls, who tend to lose the advantage they had at a young age. In addition, the percentage of girls in provincial high schools is higher than boys. The proportion of rural girls in provincial high schools is 25.5 percentage points lower than that of city girls. In light of this gap between rural and urban areas, the girls of these two groups perform differently overall and have discrepancy in their educational resources.

The fourth aspect is time allocation among the girls. Girls at all ages are able to get 8 hours' sleep or more; however, girls spend more time on homework and housework than boys do and are shown to have less time allotted for entertainment.

The fifth aspect is time spent doing housework and the chore content. With 9.9 percentage points separating the two, girls are shown to be involved in more housework than boys are. The proportion of urban-area girls involved in housework (73.7 percent) is 10.5 points higher than that of boys. Likewise, the proportion of girls in rural areas (79.6 percent) is 9.6 points higher than that of boys. Compared with rural girls, the girls in cities take on less housework. The findings show an obvious difference in housework responsibilities between the two sexes and in different areas. Rural girls take on more housework than both rural boys and urban girls. With respect to the housework content, there is a clear work division for children in rural areas, whereby girls do more household chores and boys do more farm work.

III. Analysis

Compared with other developing countries, the research findings indicate an overall positive status for girls' development and quality of life as well as a decreasing gap between girls and boys in China. Compared with such underdeveloped countries, most of the girls in China are actually quite lucky, at least to some extent. From the perspective of historical comparison, China's advancement is remarkable. The development and quality of life of girls in today's Chinese society has achieved historically unrivaled progress.

The survey statistics show that in the respects of quality of life, development, protection and social participation, girls have achieved an equal status to that of boys. In other words, for today's girls in China, the previous status of inferiority seems to be weakened and not to be obvious anymore. In our opinion, the drastic change to young girls' previously inferior image and status is closely related to the overall situation of China: the rapid development and improvement in economy and living standards since the reform and opening-up, the ever-increasing prevalence and awareness of gender equality since the founding of the People's Republic of China [in 1949], the one-child policy, the large population and high levels of social stress and competition. These objective factors have resulted in parents' high expectations for and investment in their children and make it less possible to treat girls differently than boys. To some extent, these factors contribute to relative equality. In addition, the emotional and physical traits of girls, their confidence, their spirit of working hard, and their adaptation to the current educational appraisal system has resulted in the fact that girls' performance in education is not inferior to that of boys.

However, does this mean that Chinese girls have the same rights as boys and that there are no issues surrounding their development and quality of life? Of course not. In spite of the generally positive outlook that the research findings convey, a rational analysis of the results will reveal that there are still some problems to be considered.

Firstly, overall, girls have realized equality to boys; however, in terms of development and quality of life, being protected and involved, there are still some problems and obstacles that girls face. For example, compared with boys, girls are responsible for more housework and have less time to spend on entertainment. The proportion of uneducated girls is higher than that of boys. The traditional concepts of gender still exert a negative impact on the development of girls. Also, with respect to their development and quality of life, there is a discrepancy within the female group: Girls in rural and west areas and minority girls in these areas are inferior to both city girls and their male counterparts.

Secondly, while the research indicates that from the perspective of women's life cycle, the gap of development and quality of life in different gender groups in childhood is small, adult females have less personal-development opportunity and an inferior social status to those of men. So what leads to this situation? In other words, how can we come to understand where exactly the change to young girls' previously disadvantaged image diverges from the disadvantaged status of women in career development? We can attribute the obstacles of women's liberation and development to the traditional culture and social factors of China.

In summary, according to the research findings — from which the conclusion can be drawn that the gap in development and quality of life between girls and boys is diminishing — the advancement of gender equality in China has been achieved, especially in the area of children's development. Nevertheless, girls' rights still need to be protected and developed taking into account not only area distinction, such as the difference in children's development and quality of life between rural and urban areas, but also the fact that minority girls and girls in rural and west areas require greater attention and concern.

The author is associate researcher of the Research Department of Regulations and Policies, Woman's Studies Institute of China, All-China Women's Federation.

(Source: Chinese Women's Movement/Translated and edited by Women of China)