Balance of Work and Family

According to a recent report on working mothers released by recruitment website 51job.com, 63.2 percent of married Chinese women feel too exhausted to balance work and family, especially child rearing. To be specific, 41.5 percent of married women spend more than three hours on family issues which means they devote virtually all their time to family after work and sleep. The survey also shows that working mothers need flexible working schedules, fair promotion opportunities and longer maternity leave. Chinese working mothers must shoulder heavy family responsibilities and might have to get back to work three to five years after having a child. Sociologists argue that authorities and enterprises must unveil more preferential policies for working mothers and reduce job discrimination to encourage them to have more babies at a time when the birth rate in the country is in decline.