Localising Pro-Natalism Case Analysis: Gender and China’s Three-Child Policy

Asia and Africa today. 2026. No. 3. P. 66–72.

Fu L.

This research examines how the implementation of the three-child policy has unfolded in 4 province-level administrative divisions of the People’s Republic of China: Qinghai, Liaoning, Jiangsu and Guangdong, and analyses the gendered implications embedded in their provincial adaptations.

Despite national pro-natalist targets, heterogeneous local adaptations reveal an inconsistent relationship between fertility incentives and women’s empowerment. Qinghai offers maximum maternity and childcare leave but lacks gender equity; Liaoning protects public-sector workers; Jiangsu promotes female entrepreneurship, while childcare support remains comparatively limited; and Guangdong places particular emphasis on housing subsidies for raising children. Although the policy is explicitly pro-natalist, its implementation continues to be constrained by gender-biased parental-leave arrangements and entrenched urban-rural disparities in women’s autonomy. Province-specific population and family planning laws suggest that financial, institutional, and cultural empowerment proposals might perform more effectively than universal rules.

The fertility-empowerment paradox is criticised and gender-sensitive measures are suggested to achieve demographic goals and equal labour participation. This research suggests that relevant local authorities strengthen rural mother assistance (Qinghai), childcare facilities (Liaoning/Jiangsu), and corporate responsibility (Guangdong) to reduce gendered trade-offs.

Keywords: China, demographic transition, work-family conflict, three-child policy, gendered empowerment, provincial disparities, fertility incentives

Publication based on the results of: The diversity of forms, effects and barriers to integration of modern Russian society in synchronic and diachronic dimensions (2025)