In Search of Policies for Aged Chinese Women

With the aim to exploring the policiesfor aged women in China, we entered this field, and found it a rich one, including free public transport, welfare facilities, pensions, care service for the aged, and special medical care, etc. In this paper, the key area we selected is to analyze the pension system with a gender perspective. The reasons for choosing this area are that it is the basic guarantee for the elders to live a decent life after they lose their working ability, is the fundamental factor for people to survive, and the key issue for the change from family-based old-age care toward a society-based one. There are no special policies for aged women; while the pension system for women has been embedded into the overall pension system, which was established in 1950s. The system was originated in urban regions and has been in operation for half a century. It was designed and funded according to the worker’s wages. Meanwhile, the standard was differentiated according to the labors’ social status. There are three layers designed for the pension system, namely public servant on the top, enterprise workers in the middle, and farmers at the bottom. Pension for women has been included in these three layers and they share relevant treatment. Besides, within each layer, there are certain rules in light of gender. The main contents of the paper are the features and rules of China’s pension system, the gender oriented rules within the system, the forming of gender differences within one certain layer, and the influences these rules lay on the elders with the specialty of women. This article looks at the Chinese pension system in a gender-based perspective, analyzes the overlapping and interaction of the system between urban and rural areas, among different classes of society, and between different genders, and thus looks into how the existing pension system has resulted in gender-based gap, and how it has widened, either consciously or unconsciously, the pension entitlement gap between men and women

Political science · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Medicine · Psychology · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Gerontology

• Lives of Old Women of Korean Nationality in Beijing

  Open Access•Cui Xian-Xiang, Xianxiang Cui•Asian Women•2010

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