Risks and Solutions on Women’s Employment In Post One-Child Policy China: A Content Analysis of News Articles

Background: In 2015, China officially ended its one-child policy. A 2021 new amendment to the Population and Family Planning Law allows couples to have three children, responding to rapid population aging and declining fertility. China has experienced population decline since 2022, with a total fertility rate has decreased to 1.0 in 2025. These demographic challenges raise critical questions about the fertility and female labor force participation as social policies and values evolve. This study asks: 1) How does family planning policy reform affect female employment in the post ‘one-child’ era? 2). What social solutions and policy solutions in response to declining fertility and female employment challenges?

Methods: Through qualitative thematic content analysis of newspaper articles, we examine female employment issues during policy transitions. News media serves as a social channel that reflects public attitudes, elite framing, and short-term evaluative data regarding policy implementation.We searched Baidu News (leading Chinese internet search engine) using keywords including two-child, family planning, maternity leave, and female employment in Chinese (i.e., ertai, shengyu, Chanjia, nvxing jiuye) for two periods: January 2016 - September 2017 and June 2021 - November 2025. A total of 205 articles were collected and analyzed.

Results: For the 2016–2017 period, two primary thematic domains emerged: corporate/employer behavior and individual behavior. Corporate subthemes included 1) gendered gatekeeping in recruitment and promotion, and 2) regulatory responses, frequently framed through quotes from Human Resource professionals and legal experts, emphasizing economic and managerial concerns. Individual behavior subthemes captured: 1) female individuals: between aspiration and exclusion, and 2) male individuals: peripheral and passive presence. Individual-level narratives -particularly those centered on women - appeared less frequently and were largely framed through a lens of personal struggle or emotional stress rather than structural critique. Mentions of men, especially as fathers, were minimal, further entrenching the notion that caregiving is a female responsibility.

In the 2021–2025 period, media coverage shifted toward policy implementation — expanded paid maternity leave, early childhood and after-school care, and stronger anti-discrimination enforcement — reflecting a more structural response to fertility decline and female employment challenges.

Conclusion and Implications: In the earlier years of post-one-child China, media narratives often emphasized employers’ concerns about maternity costs and productivity, portraying women—especially of childbearing age—as a “risk” in hiring and promotion decisions. In more recent new three-child policy China, expanded paid material and parental leave policy and social services have been more frequently discussed and implemented. However, female employment challenges remain largely framed within assumptions of women's caregiving responsibility, with limited structural critique. China's evolving family planning policy offers a valuable comparative case for examining the relationships between low fertility, family policy, and societal change — challenges shared by many developed countries today. This study's content analysis of news media provides unique insights into these complex and intersecting issues. Findings highlight the need for equity-centered public dialogue and policy design, with implications for social work advocacy, labor equity, and gender-sensitive policymaking in post-reform China.

Keywords: fertility, family policy, female employment, one-child policy, China