Shanghai women balk at third child

While convincing Chinese women - especially career women - to have a second child is challenging, persuading one to have a third is virtually certain to be met with a cold shoulder.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 women over 18 in Shanghai found that for 75 percent of them having a third child is simply "out of the question".

Conducted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Social Science, the survey was designed to get a glimpse of the concerns of women in the city on personal development, family and social life. Just 1.3 percent of interviewees said they already had three children, the survey found; 2.4 percent said they would like to have a third child if policy allowed; and 21.3 percent were undecided.