性别失衡下的中国农村养老及其政策启示

中国社会转型期性别失衡带来的男性婚姻挤压问题对农村养老的影响是中国人口社会可持续发展的重大问题之一。本文利用2008—2010年的三次农村人口专项抽样调查数据,从性别、年代、婚姻、区域、人口流动等多视角综合分析了性别失衡背景下农村居民的养老意愿、代际支持行为以及男性失婚对父母生活满意度的影响,并探讨了婚姻挤压对中国农村养老带来的挑战及政策建议。研究发现,男性婚姻挤压问题已经对农村养老产生了重要影响:大龄未婚男性成为打算依靠政府救济养老的主要人群;大龄未婚男性给予父母的代际支持较弱、父母的生活满意度较低。文章丰富和发展了养老研究的视角,初步识别了性别失衡给农村养老所带来的负面后果,研究有利于进一步认识性别失衡的人口社会后果,并为综合治理性别失衡问题提供现实依据。

Old-age Support of Rural Chinese and Policy Implications in the Context of Gender Imbalance

This paper analyzes the rural resident’s attitudes toward old-age support,intergenerational support and impacts of male marriage squeeze on parents’ welfare from perspectives of gender,birth cohort,migration and regional differences in the context of gender imbalance.A quantitative analysis research with the chi-square test is the main method,using sampling data of three surveys focusing on rural residents.The results show that male marriage squeeze has significant effects on rural old-age support: involuntary bachelors become the main group who plan to rely on governmental old-age relief,therefor,intergenerational support is poorer between involuntary bachelors and their parents and life satisfaction is lower for involuntary bachelors’ parents.Because of the continued gender imbalance,the population structure,social economy,policy,rural resident’s beliefs and behavior in old age support will change in the next decade or two.So it is worthy of continuing to focus on the old-age support problem of elder unmarried men and their parents.This study contributes to understanding socio-demographic consequences caused by gender imbalance and provids evidence for comprehensive governance for gender imbalance,which is also helpful to solve the old unmarried men and their parents’ supporting crisis.Based on the realistic background of gender imbalance in contemporary China,this paper analyzes the old age support in rural China by multi-perspective,especially the marital status and gender perspective,which will help clarify the effects of male marriage squeeze on old age support and contribute to control the old-age supporting crisis earlier.