Alice He ’25 discussed the impact of China’s one-child policy on gender dynamics.
When Brace Fellow Alice He ’25 returned to China two years ago, nearly everyone she met assumed that she and her sister were friends instead of siblings. Inspired by this experience, He examined China’s one-child policy in her presentation, titled “The Ban on Babies: How the One-Child Policy Transformed Gender Norms in China,” on January 27 in Abbot Hall.
Introduced in 1980 to curb China’s growing population, the one-child policy limited most Chinese families to having one child each. He discussed how this policy affected women, compounding the preference for male children and resulting in skewed gender ratios.
“Overall, much of the psychological and physiological consequences of the policy were shouldered by women. The brutal handling of women’s bodies in the name of enforcement demonstrated how officials often valued population targets over the care of both the women and the children’s health in the country,” said He.
He continued, “Women were given one chance to do it right and birth a son. This placed lots of pressure on women and mothers, who sometimes committed suicide or were divorced by their husbands if they failed to bear a son. It also meant terrible consequences for the daughters under the policy, especially in rural areas… Many baby girls were abandoned and killed, and in some circumstances mothers who did keep their daughters internalized the oppression, and resented their daughters for being born.”
In addition to examining the negative impacts of the one-child policy, He also shed light on some unexpected benefits that arose. He explained how the policy promoted female agency in certain parts of China.
“Like much of history, the one-child policy was again not black or white, and there were certain effects of empowerment and gender equality that resulted from it. One example of it is employment and higher social status with women, in Xiangzhou, a province categorized as rural or urban… A staggering 96 percent of women said that they believed that the policy’s family planning increased their ability to work and access job opportunities, which raised their income as well,” said He.
Attendee Jasjit Hargun ’27 described how the presentation changed his perception of the one-child policy. Appreciating that He did not only focus on the negative effects of the policy, Hargun expressed that he discovered the topic was more nuanced than he had thought.
“One of the main points was that nothing is entirely good or bad. For example, the one-child policy caused trauma and loss, but it also led to improved education and job opportunities for the girls who were kept… Originally, I just thought the one-child policy was bad and short-sighted. I thought, with hindsight, there wouldn’t have been much risk of overpopulation, so I felt it was short-sighted. But then, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not that I now think [the policy] was fully good; it’s just that I don’t think it was completely bad anymore,” said Hargun.
Thao Pham ’25, another attendee, commented on the chronological arrangement of He’s presentation. She praised He’s organization, as it helped her understand the presentation and navigate such a complex topic.
“I thought Alice framed the presentation really well. I liked how she went in almost a chronological order, the information really built on itself. You have the beginning of the child boom, when people were encouraged to have children, and the fear of lack of [children]. It really tells a story about the historical underlings that also impacted the decision for why China had that policy in the first place, and as she moved on she went to the modern day about how women are grappling with this history and the very existence of this policy in China today. So that was just a really comprehensive way to organize a presentation, [and] I thought that it was delivered really well,” said Pham.
Reflecting on her presentation, He aimed to combat the misconception that Americans live in a bubble. She emphasized the importance of raising awareness about and learning from issues in different countries around the world.
“My main point is to have greater awareness of the policies and laws in different countries, and how we don’t exist in a bubble of our own western world [because] there’s a lot of other countries and histories that we can learn from. [I want to] use that history to inform how we think about the policies and controversies that are happening in our own worlds [and] in our own lives that might influence our own bodies,” said He.
