CONSIDERING REGIONAL POLICIES TOWARDS AGEING THROUGH A GENDERED LENS: THE CASE OF CHINA
o caso da China
DOI:
10.52367/BRJPD.2675-102X.2019.1.1.25-44Keywords:
ageing, gender, China, demography, health.Abstract
It is well known that populations around the world - and in Pacific Asia in particular - are ageing, and ageing rapidly. China is no exception to this. While it has been widely agreed that gender is an important lens through which to define and develop appropriate policies for both adaptation and mitigation of the challenges of ageing, gender is rarely explicitly taken into consideration as a vector of consideration. In this paper, we demonstrate for the case of China how when viewing this intersection through a regional lens, the extent to which old age is ‘feminised’ differs sharply across the country. Taken together, this shows the importance of considering gender both in old-age, as well as inequalities across the life course, in the formulation and development of policies relating to ageing at both the national and the regional level. This is especially important in a country such as China, where provinces and other local governments yield important policymaking powers in certain key areas relevant to ageing.
Downloads
References
ADB. 2017. “Strengthening Public Pensions and Health Coverage in the Pacific, Proceedings of the 2016 ADB-FNPF-PPI Forum on Public Pension Systems in Asia, Focus: Pacific Region.” Asian Development Bank. https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/237441/strengthening-pension-systems- 2017-online.pdf.
Aksi, Adb-Prc. 2018. “‘Developing Healthy and Age Friendly Cities in the PRC: From Planning to Practice.’” ADB-PRC Regional Knowledge Sharing Initiative. 2018. http://www.rksi.org/event/developing-healthy-and-age-friendly-cities-prc-planning-practice.
Arber, S., and J. Ginn. 1991. Gender and Later Life: A Sociological Analysis of Resources and Constraints. London: Sage.
Basten, Stuart, and Quanbao Jiang. 2014. “China’s Family Planning Policies: Recent Reforms and Future Prospects.” Studies in Family Planning 45 (4): 493–509.
Bergdahl, Ellinor, Per Allard, Lena Alex, Berit Lundman, and Yngve Gustafson. 2007. “Gender Differences in Depression among the Very Old.” International Psychogeriatrics / IPA 19 (6): 1125–40.
Branigan, Tanya. 2012. “China Faces ‘Timebomb’ of Ageing Population.” The Guardian, 2012. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/20/china-next-generation-ageing-population.
Cai, Yong. 2013. “China’s New Demographic Reality: Learning from the 2010 Census.” Population and Development Review 39 (3): 371–96.
Cai, Yong, and Yuan Cheng. 2014. “Pension Reform in China: Challenges and Opportunities.” Journal of Economic Surveys 28 (4): 636–51.
Chan, Chak Kwan. 2003. “Protecting the Ageing Poor or Strengthening the Market Economy: The Case of the Hong Kong Mandatory Provident Fund.” International Journal of Social Welfare 12 (2): 123–31.
Chi, Z., Z. X. Dong, W. X. Lei, Z. W. Jun, L. Lu, and T. Hesketh. 2013. “Changing Gender Preference in China Today: Implications for the Sex Ratio.” Indian Journal of Gender Studies 20 (1): 51–68.
Corsi, Marcella, and L. Samek. 2011. “Active Ageing and Gender Equality Policies.” EGGSI Repor T for the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities, Brussels. http://www.sinisazrinscak.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/EU- Active-Ageing-+-Gender-Report-2010.pdf.
Ding, Q. J., and T. Hesketh. 2006. “Family Size, Fertility Preferences, and Sex Ratio in China in the Era of the One Child Family Policy: Results from National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Survey.” BMJ 333 (7564): 371–73.
Du, Hui, Shun-Le Chen, Chun-De Bao, Xiao-Dong Wang, Yu Lu, Yue-Ying Gu, Jian-Rong Xu, et al. 2005. “Prevalence and Risk Factors of Knee Osteoarthritis in Huang-Pu District, Shanghai, China.” Rheumatology International 25 (8): 585–90.
Du, Peng, and Hui Yang. 2010. “China’s Population Ageing and Active Ageing.” China Journal of Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1080/17525098.2010.492636.
Eggleston, K., and S. Tuljapurkar, eds. 2010. Aging Asia: The Economic and Social Implications of Rapid Demographic Change in China, Japan, and South Korea. Stanford, CA: APARC Books.
Fang, Evandro Fei, Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, Heiko J. Jahn, Juan Li, Li Ling, Hongwei Guo,Xinqiang Zhu, et al. 2015. “A Research Agenda for Aging in China in the 21st Century.”Ageing Research Reviews 24 (Pt B): 197–205.
Festini, F., and M. de Martino. 2004. “Twenty Five Years of the One Child Family Policy in China: Problems and Future Prospects.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 58 (5): 358–59.
Fitzgerald, Kelly G., and Francis G. Caro. 2014. “An Overview of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities around the World.” Journal of Aging & Social Policy 26 (1-2): 1–18.
Foster, Liam, and Alan Walker. 2013. “Gender and Active Ageing in Europe.” European Journal of Ageing 10 (1): 3–10.
Ghislandi, Simone, Warren C. Sanderson, and Sergei Scherbov. 2019. “A Simple Measure of Human Development: The Human Life Indicator.” Population and Development Review 45(1): 219–33.
Gietel-Basten, Stuart. 2017. “Family Planning and Fertility Transition in China.” In Handbook on the Family and Marriage in China, edited by Xiaowei Zang and Lucy X. Zhao, 187–203. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Gietel-Basten, Stuart, Vladimir Mau, Warren Sanderson, Sergei Scherbov, and Sergey Shulgin. 2019. “Ageing in Russia: A Regional Appraisal.” Journal of Population Ageing EarlyView: 1–18.
Gorlin, Yuriy M., Victor Yu Lyashok, and Tatiana M. Maleva. 2018. “Pension Age Increase: Positive Effects and the Possible Risks.” Economic Policy 1: 148–79.
Gu, Baochang, Feng Wang, Zhigang Guo, and Erli Zhang. 2007. “China’s Local and National Fertility Policies at the End of the Twentieth Century.” Population and Development Review 33 (1): 129–47.
Helsing, K. J., M. Szklo, and G. W. Comstock. 1981. “Factors Associated with Mortality after Widowhood.” American Journal of Public Health 71 (8): 802–9.
Holz, Carsten A., and Yi-Min Lin. 2001. “Pitfalls of China’s Industrial Statistics: Inconsistencies and Specification Problems.” China Review 1 (1): 29–71.
Hu, Yuwei. 2015. “Population Ageing and Saving Rates in China, Japan and Korea: A Panel Granger Causality Analysis.” Global Economic Review 44 (1): 64–73.
Ikegami, N. 2010. “Financing Health Care in a Rapidly Aging Japan.” In Aging Asia, edited by K. Eggleston and S. Tuljapurkar, 97–108. Stanford, CA: APARC Press.
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). 2018. “China Subnational MDG 4/5.” IHME, University of Washington. http://www.healthdata.org/data-visualization/china-subnational- mdg-45.
Jacobson, Stacy D., and Lynn C. Hartmann. 2004. “108 - Cancer Management in Older Women.” In Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine, edited by Marianne J. Legato, 1171–85. San Diego: Academic Press.
Jiang, Quanbao, Xiaomin Li, and Jesús J. Sánchez-Barricarte. 2015. “Elderly Widowhood in China.” Asian Population Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730.2014.981328.
Jiang, Quanbao, and Jesús J. Sánchez-Barricarte. 2011. “Bare Branches and Social Stability: A Historical Perspective from China.” Frontiers of History in China 6 (4): 538–61.
Jin, Xiaoyi, Lige Liu, Yan Li, Marcus W. Feldman, and Shuzhuo Li. 2013. “‘Bare Branches’ and the Marriage Market in Rural China: Preliminary Evidence from a Village-Level Survey.”Chinese Sociological Review 46 (1): 83–104.
Kaneda, Toshiko, Zachary Zimmer, Xianghua Fang, and Zhe Tang. 2009. “Gender Differences in Functional Health and Mortality Among the Chinese Elderly: Testing an Exposure Versus Vulnerability Hypothesis.” Research on Aging 31 (3): 361–88.
Krekula, Clary. 2007. “The Intersection of Age and Gender Reworking Gender Theory and Social Gerontology.” Current Sociology International Sociological Association SAGE 55 (2): 155–71.
Lee, Ronald Demos, and Andrew Mason. 2012. Population Aging and the Generational Economy : A Global Perspective. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Legato, Marianne J., and John P. Bilezikian. 2004. Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine. Gulf Professional Publishing.
Liao, George. 2018. “MOI: Taiwan Officially Becomes an Aged Societ... | Taiwan News.” Taiwan News. Taiwan News. April 10, 2018. https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3402395.
Li, Kanglan, Shouchao Wei, Zhou Liu, Li Hu, Jiajing Lin, Shiting Tan, Yingren Mai, et al. 2018. “The Prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease in China: A Systematic Review and Meta- Analysis.” Iranian Journal of Public Health 47 (11): 1615–26.
Lin, Jing. 2017. “Social Security under Decentralized Authoritarianism: Politics of The Public Pension Program in China.” PhD, University of Syracuse. https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1722&context=etd.
Lin, Ming-Hsien, Ming-Yueh Chou, Chih-Kuang Liang, Li-Ning Peng, and Liang-Kung Chen. 2010. “Population Aging and Its Impacts: Strategies of the Health-Care System in Taipei.” Ageing Research Reviews 9 Suppl 1 (November): S23–27.
Li, Xin, Li Fan, and Sean X. Leng. 2018. “The Aging Tsunami and Senior Healthcare Development in China.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 66 (8): 1462–68. Ma, A. 1986. “An Evaluation on the Quality of the Data of the 1982 Population Census of China.” https://www.popline.org/node/348719.
China.” https://www.popline.org/node/348719.
Meiko, Makita. 2010. “Gender Roles and Social Policy in an Ageing Society: The Case of Japan.” International Journal of Ageing and Later Life 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.105177.
Melton, L. J., A. W. Lane, C. Cooper, R. Eastell, W. M. O’Fallon, and B. L. Riggs. 1993. “Prevalence and Incidence of Vertebral Deformities.” Osteoporosis International: A Journal Established as Result of Cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA 3 (3): 113–19.
Naegele, Gerhard, and Alan Walker. 2007. “Social Protection: Incomes, Poverty and the Reform of Pension Systems.” Ageing in Society 3: 142–66.
O’connor, S. 2014. “World Will Have 13 ‘super-Aged’ Nations by 2020.” Financial Times, August 6, 2014. https://www.ft.com/content/f356f8a0-1d8c-11e4-8f0c-00144feabdc0.
Oksanen, Heikki. 2010. “The Chinese Pension System - First Results on Assessing the Reform Options.” European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015.
Peng, Du, and Zhi-Gang Guo. 2000. “Population Ageing in China.” In Ageing in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Policies, and Future Trends, edited by David R. Phillips, 194–209. London: Routledge.
Population Reference Bureau. 2009. “Gender Differences in Health Among the Elderly in China –.” PRB. June 17, 2009. https://www.prb.org/chinaelderlyhealth/.
Shehan, Constance L., ed. 2016. “Widowhood.” In Encyclopedia of Family Studies, 125:1–5. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Shinkawa, Toshimitsu. 2005. “The Politics of Pension Reform in Japan: Institutional Legacies, Credit-Claiming, and Blame Avoidance.” Ageing and Pension Reform around the World: Evidence from Eleven Countries, 157–81.
Smith, J., and M. M. Baltes. 1998. “The Role of Gender in Very Old Age: Profiles of Functioning and Everyday Life Patterns.” Psychology and Aging 13 (4): 676–95.
Smits, Jeroen, and Iñaki Permanyer. 2019. “The Subnational Human Development Database.” Scientific Data 6 (March): 190038.
Song, Yan, and Ying Bian. 2014. “Gender Differences in the Use of Health Care in China: Cross-Sectional Analysis.” International Journal for Equity in Health 13 (January): 8.
Steels, Stephanie. 2015. “Key Characteristics of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities: A Review.” Cities 47 (September): 45–52.
Suzuki, Toru. 2013. Low Fertility and Population Aging in Japan and Eastern Asia. Dordrecht: Springer.
Torres-Gil, Fernando M., and Kimberly Spencer-Suarez. 2014. “18. Aging Electorates and Gerontocracy: The Politics of Aging in a Global World.” International Handbook on Ageing and Public Policy, 227.
UNPD. 2017. “World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision.” World Population Prospects:
The 2017 Revision. 2017.
———. 2019. “World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision.” World Population Prospects
2019. https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Standard/.
Walker, A., and C. Aspalter. 2014. Active Ageing in Asia. London: Routledge.
Wang, Dewen, Jianmin Zheng, Michiko Kurosawa, and Yutaka Inaba. 2009. “Relationships between Age and Gender Differentials in Health among Older People in China.” Ageing & Society 29 (7): 1141–54.
Wang, F., Y. Cai, K. Shen, and S. Gietel-Basten. 2018. “Is Demography Just a Numerical
Exercise? Numbers, Politics, and Legacies of China’s One Child Policy.” Demography 55 (2): 693–719.
Wang, Guoying, Xiujun Zhang, Kai Wang, Youhai Li, Qiong Shen, Xiaojiao Ge, and Wei Hang. 2011. “Loneliness among the Rural Older People in Anhui, China: Prevalence and Associated Factors.” International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 26 (11): 1162–68. Wang, Yi, Ernest Gonzales, and Nancy Morrow-Howell. 2017. “Applying WHO’s Age-Friendly Communities Framework to a National Survey in China.” Journal of Gerontological Social Work 60 (3): 215–31.
World Bank. n.d. “World Bank Report Offers Options for Elderly Care in China.” World Bank. Accessed July 10, 2019. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/12/13/world-bank-report-offers-options-for-elderly-care-in-china. World Health Organization. 2007. Global Age-Friendly Cities: A Guide. World Health Organization.
Xu, Jie, Zheng Wu, Christoph M. Schimmele, and Shuzhuo Li. 2019. “Widowhood and Depression: A Longitudinal Study of Older Persons in Rural China.” Aging & Mental Health, February, 1–9.
Yi, Zeng. 2008. “Reliability of Age Reporting Among the Chinese Oldest-Old in the CLHLS Datasets.” In Healthy Longevity in China: Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Psychological Dimensions, edited by Zeng Yi, Dudley L. Poston, Denese Ashbaugh Vlosky, and DananGu, 61–78. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Yu, M. Y., and R. Sarri. 1997. “Women’s Health Status and Gender Inequality in China.” Social Science & Medicine 45 (12): 1885–98.
Zhang, Junfeng, Linghua Song, Guifen Liu, Ailian Zhang, Haiyuan Dong, Zhiyong Liu, Xiaofeng Li, and Jing Luo. 2013. “Risk Factors for and Prevalence of Knee Osteoarthritis in the Rural Areas of Shanxi Province, North China: A COPCORD Study.” Rheumatology International 33 (11): 2783–88.
Zhan, Heying Jenny, and Rhonda J. V. Montgomery. 2003. “Gender And Elder Care In China: The Influence of Filial Piety and Structural Constraints.” Gender & Society: Official Publication of Sociologists for Women in Society 17 (2): 209–29.
