Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2020

Women’s Political Status and the Sex Ratio in the Population at Birth—An Empirical Study Based on County-Level Data 1950-2000

(Abstract)

You Wuyue and Yao Yang

Women’s liberation is an important part of the people’s liberation movement led by the Communist Party of China. Improving women’s political status is the basic condition for improving women’s social welfare rights and interests. Based on the data from county annals of more than 1700 counties, censuses in 1990 and 2000, and other representative surveys, we have made an empirical study of the long-term effect of women’s political status on the sex ratio at birth in the population. The research has found that the higher the proportion of female Communist Party members reached in each county in 1950, the more normal would be the ratio of female to male birth rates in the following 50 years. The improved political status of women at the age of 16-20 significantly increased the proportion of surviving female infants to among the children they gave birth to, especially in the era of family planning. This demographic study, for the first time, provides empirical historical evidence from a certain aspect for the long-term social impact of the cause of the Chinese people’s liberation.