Analysis on the Influence Factors of Urban Women's Willingness to Have More Than One Child

: Since the country released the three-child policy last year, the smooth implementation of the three-child policy has attracted much attention from all walks of life. Cities also immediately conducted a survey on the fertility willingness of the right-aged population, and the results were not as high as expected. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the factors that influence urban women's willingness to have more children.


Introduction
On may31,2021, the Political Bureau meeting of the CPC Central Committee decided to implement the policy that a couple can have three children, which marks China's formal entry into the multi child era. Can the liberalization of the three-child policy greatly increase the fertility willingness of people of childbearing age and usher in the fertility peak as expected? However, many cities have conducted research on the right-aged women's willingness to have two or three children and found that they do not respond positively. What factors influence urban women's willingness to have more than one child?

First of all, The Family Economic
Conditions Are Related to The Ability of Urban Women to Have More Than One Child The expected cost and utility of having children are important factors that affect family fertility decision-making. First of all, from the perspective of economic cost, it costs more to have multiple children than to have only one child. From the perspective of effect, there is also a phenomenon of diminishing marginal utility in the birth of multiple children and single children. Therefore, when considering whether to have a second or third child, economic cost has become the primary factor to be considered.
According to the China Fertility cost report 2022, the average cost of raising children aged 0-17 in Chinese families is 485000 yuan. The average cost of raising children aged 0 ~ 17 in urban families is 630000.Compared with the cost of having one child, the cost of having more than one child, in addition to the cost of upbringing and education, is also the cost of improving housing. As we all know, high housing prices are now a knife hanging over the heads of urban youth. The high cost of having more than one child puts forward quite high requirements for urban families with more than one child.
Statistics show that residents with better economic conditions and larger living areas are more willing to have two or even three children. So, when urban women decide whether to have more children, the primary consideration is whether they have this economic strength.

Second, Family Happiness Index Is Related to Whether Urban Women Have the Motivation to Have More Than One Child
In China's traditional marriage and family structure, influenced by the idea of "son preference", Chinese women have been unable to enjoy the right to education equivalent to men for a long time, which leads to their considerable disadvantages in labor income. In addition, Due to the difference in the division of labor and roles played by men and women in childbirth, most women will pay more for childbirth.
Nowadays, most urban women in China are well-educated and economically independent individuals. The final statistical monitoring report of the "outline for the development of Chinese women (2011-2020)" issued by the National Bureau of statistics in 2021 shows that in 2020, the number of women receiving all kinds of higher education in China has exceeded that of men, of which the number of female graduate students is 1.599 million, accounting for more than 50%. The higher a person is educated, the higher his labor income is. The equality of women's educational opportunities makes women have the same economic strength as men, and their family status is no longer subordinate to men.
With the equal status of men and women in urban families, even in some cities of China, women's family status is generally higher than that of men, which leads to women having more say in childbirth. Urban women enjoy unprecedented autonomy in whether to have children or not.
When urban professional women consider whether to have two or three children, they need to take into account the time cost of childbearing and raising children, plus their own working hours, which is impossible for the traditional "widowed child rearing" and requires the full cooperation of the family. Therefore, if the family can not give women enough sense of security, trust and happiness, it is difficult for them to make positive choices.
A large number of data show that young mothers born after 95 are more inclined to be full-time mothers. In some cities, the proportion of full-time mothers even exceeds 50%. However, in many cities in China, because the social infant care supporting services are not perfect, most of the work of raising children must be supervised by themselves, so the task of bringing up a child by full-time mothers is already very heavy. If they are not forced or have a strong sense of satisfaction in the process of raising children, they will not take the initiative to choose to have two or three children.

Finally, Public Service Quality Is A Powerful External Environmental Factor for Urban Women to Have More Than One Child
Raising children requires a lot of public supporting services from the society. For example, convenient medical services, reliable early education and preschool education services, fair nine-year compulsory education services, and so on. If a mother finds that it will be difficult to see a doctor, enter a nursery school, or buy a school district house before she can go to a better primary school, her enthusiasm to have multiple children will be greatly reduced.
Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has made remarkable achievements in its economic construction. But the imbalance brought about by economic development also exists. The unbalanced development of cities and cities has created megacities with large population and economic volume, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The distribution of medical resources and educational resources is uneven both nationally and in cities. Urban women need to consider these factors repeatedly in the process of raising children, so their willingness to have two or three children will be affected.
In China, whether urban women have two or three children is not their own the final say, nor is it the husband and wife the final say. Instead, they need the family and society to provide favorable support. In order to improve the willingness of urban women to have two or even three children, the primary task is to continue to increase family economic income and expand middle-income families; In addition, attention should be paid to the publicity of harmonious positive energy family atmosphere; Finally, high-quality social and public supporting services are also essential.