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Population Policy in China and South Korea: Opinions from Middle Class Women of Reproductive Age

China decided to end its decades-long one-child policy in 2015 and came to an era of two-child policy. This change brought a hot discussion about the new policy among Chinese women; especially, more women of reproductive age become dissatisfied with limited reproductive rights and are forced to face a more severe challenge of gender discrimination in the job market as well as pressure inside their families. Similarly, South Korea also experienced this transformation in childbirth policy. Since fertility rate became lower, labor shortage pushed South Korea to end its population-control policy in 1990s. There are a huge number of public service advertisements, saying that "one child is not enough; at least two" or "having more babies to save the old country". It seems that China and South Korea are facing similar challenges of low birth rate and an aging society, and governments attempt to implement certain policy to solve those problems. But how do their people evaluate those policies? The purpose of the study is to collect, analyze and compare the opinions of the women who are directly and profoundly influenced by the change of family planning policy from China and South Koreain order to answer the following three questions: 1) are middle class women of reproductive age satisfied with those policies; 2) are those policies effective to increase the number of children and 3) are there any difference or common voices from those women in China and South Korea, regarding to the two counties' policies?

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