The Grandmothers’ Farewell to Childcare Provision under China’s Two-Child Policy: Evidence from Guangzhou Middle-Class Families

Abstract

As China’s one-child policy is replaced by the two-child policy, young Chinese women and their spouses are increasingly concerned about who will take care of the ‘second child.’ Due to the absence of public childcare services and the rising cost of privatised care services in China, childcare provision mainly relies on families, such that working women’s choices of childbirth, childcare and employment are heavily constrained. To deal with structural barriers, young urban mothers mobilise grandmothers as joint caregivers. Based on interviews with Guangzhou middle-class families, this study examines the impact of childcare policy reform since 1978 on childbirth and childcare choices of women. It illustrates the longstanding contributions and struggles of women, particularly grandmothers, engaged in childcare. It also shows that intergenerational parenting involves a set of practices of intergenerational intimacy embedded in material conditions, practical acts of care, moral values and power dynamics. We argue that the liberation, to some extent, of young Chinese mothers from childcare is at the expense of considerable unpaid care work from grandmothers rather than being driven by increased public care services and improved gender equality in domestic labour. Given the significant stress and seriously constrained choices in later life that childcare imposes, grandmothers now become reluctant to help rear a second grandchild. This situation calls for changes in family policies to increase the supply of affordable and good-quality childcare services, enhance job security in the labour market, provide supportive services to grandmothers and, most importantly, prioritise the wellbeing of women and families over national goals.

Grandparents with different health statuses as primary caregivers: Are they bad for children's health?

“…Parents should try their best to provide sufficient financial and emotional support (such as companionship and arrangements for family leisure activities) for grandparents to raise their children. Meanwhile, effective communication between parents and children is important to achieve a recognized parenting approach and mutual understanding, which could finally reduce potential intergenerational parenting conflicts (Chen et al, 2023; Hoang et al, 2020; Tangchonlatip et al, 2021; Zhong & Peng, 2020).…”

A Comparative Analysis of Impact of Universal Two-Child Policy on Maternity Insurance Fund in Jiangsu Province and Guangxi Zhuang AR

“…We included a new construct called addition to the insured population as a result of new births arising out of the universal two-child policy. We adopted the computation proposed by [ 11 ] and previously used in [ 40 ]. This model determines new additions to the insured population as a result of the new population policy as follows: where represents new additions to the insured population of the region or province in year t resulting from the two-child policy.…”

Left Behind? The Status of Women in Contemporary China

“…Yang explains this in terms of limited access to political positions and a reluctance to take these up because women feel the need to prioritise their "reproductive roles as dutiful wives" concluding that "gender equality which is now seen to be conditional on the premise of not harming the interests of men" (Yang, 2020, p. 32). Zhong and Peng (2020), in the third article of this opening section, show how the policies associated with marketisation, notably the abandonment of collectivist notions of childcare, have divided the interests of women. Throughout the era of the socialist market economy Chinese women have been expected to continue in their twin roles of worker and mother.…”

“…Parents also perceive grandparental care to be safer and more agree-able despite frequent intergenerational disputes over styles of childcare. But, Zhong and Peng (2020) argue, the cost of mothers' economic freedom is borne by grandmothers whose own personal needs are scarcely recognised. Intriguingly, too, the authors argue that, while the success of marketisation has been facilitated by the preparedness of grandmothers to support employment of their daughters and daughters-in-law, their reluctance to continue in this role is likely to limit the success of the current two-child policy.…”