In August 2021, with the decision on amending the Population and Family Planning Law voted at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the "Three-Child Era" officially arrived. However, with the opening up of the three-child policy, many parents, especially women of the right age, are in distress. How can we better balance family and career, child-rearing and self-development? At the scene of this year's "two sessions", in order to better protect the rights and interests of mothers, deputies and committee members have made suggestions, and they hope to protect the rights and interests of women of appropriate age in an all-round way and support a fertility umbrella for mothers.
The dilemma of a young mom
"Bell Bell Bell..."
The WeChat ringtone rings, Guan Beibei, who is on the way to work, answers the phone in her hand, and in the video, two-year-old Xiaobao shows a cute smile to her mother, he sits in the arms of his parenting sister-in-law, calling guan Beibei to the camera.
For Guan Beibei, who has already returned to the workplace, this is both a sweet moment and a moment that makes her heart-wrenching.
Before becoming a mother, Guan Beibei was a girl who liked children very much, and she never regretted her fertility choices, but in the process of raising Xiaobao, she was often troubled by the inability to balance the identity between mothers and professional women.
Because Guan Beibei and her husband's parents are very old and unable to help them take care of their children, after Guan Beibei returns to work, the family is not allowed to pay a high price to hire a child-rearing sister-in-law for Xiaobao.
In order to be able to pay for the cost of childcare and create a better future for Xiaobao, Guan Beibei and her husband can only work harder, leaving early and returning late every day, in exchange for more income by reducing the time spent with Xiaobao.
"One day, Xiao Bao suddenly cried at night and asked to move to the nursery sister-in-law's room to sleep, and I had mixed feelings in my heart." Speaking of the sad moments as a working mother, Guan Beibei, who has a strong personality, is inevitably lost. "I don't know if it was because I came home too late during that time and the child was expressing his dissatisfaction to me in his way, or because we saw too little, and in his heart, my aunt was more important than me."
Guan Beibei did not think about dismissing her childcare sister-in-law and returning home to take care of her children. But the enormous financial pressures and concerns about her future life have deterred her from becoming a stay-at-home mom.
"The first is the issue of age, if I spend a few years at home caring for children, I don't know if I am close to 35 years old, I can still find a suitable job. The other thing is that our economic pressure is too great. Our family still has a mortgage to pay, and it is not enough for one person to make money. Guan Beibei said.
Guan Beibei said that since giving birth to Xiaobao, she has lost almost all her personal time in order to be able to take care of her mother's duties and her own work at the same time. Although it is a joy for her to accompany her children to grow up, when asked if she considered having a second or third child, she firmly refused.
"First of all, having a second or third child means leaving the workplace for a long time, and the next time I leave the workplace, I'm not sure if I'll be able to come back smoothly." Secondly, my financial conditions and living conditions do not allow me to have other children, and I feel that there is no way to give sufficient care to the second and third children. ”
Representative research: Multiple dilemmas make mothers dare not have children
In a street interview by a morning reporter about whether they are willing to have a second or third child, many interviewees expressed similar confusion to Guan Beibei.
Among them, the high cost of raising children, the occupational risks brought by childbirth for women, and the difficulty of maintaining the rights and interests of full-time mothers (fathers) are important reasons for the reluctance of these families with original fertility plans to continue to have children.
"For us, it is too difficult to have a second child and a third child, the parents are older, we have a lot of pressure to go to work, two or three children, we can't take care of it, and we can't afford the economic cost." At the entrance of the Wukang Building, a white-collar woman interviewed confessed to reporters.
One of the daily tasks of Gao Yanfeng, a deputy to the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and vice chairman of the Jinshan Women's Federation, involves the publicity of the three-child policy, and in her work, she clearly feels that, as the white-collar worker said, concerns about the cost of childcare are troubling many families who want to continue to have children.
"Today's families attach great importance to children's preschool education and hope that children can develop in all aspects, which means that it takes a high family cost to cultivate a child." Gao Yanfeng said.
In the view of Chen Jie, deputy to the Municipal People's Congress and director of the Shanghai Qixiang Child Development Center, to enhance the willingness to have a second and third child, it is necessary to first solve the problem of child care for dual-career families, so that families with fertility intentions dare to have children. Not long ago, around her, there were cases of two-child families with care difficulties due to the lack of suitable childcare institutions.
"This is still a very good family, but they don't know how to take care of the 2-year-old second child now, the parents are already very old, it is not appropriate for the 2-year-old child to continue to be entrusted to the care of the domestic staff, and there is a lack of suitable childcare institutions for 0-3-year-old children near the home."
In addition to the cost of childcare, the career risks of taking on the mother's job have also deterred many women from having children.
Wang Yanbo, a deputy to the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and chairman of Shanghai Blue Ocean Human Resources Co., Ltd., once made a calculation that if the leave caused by childbirth is converted into RMB, the employer will need to pay each mother an average of far more than 14,500 yuan in maternity leave costs, 29,000 yuan in pregnancy leave and prenatal leave costs, and 0.9 million yuan in breastfeeding leave costs, accumulating up to 52,500 yuan.
In actual employment, this high cost of childbirth has become a heavy burden, so that all women of childbearing age and may have children will encounter hidden employment discrimination for a long time.
Not only that, due to the lack of protection of rights and interests, many young people are not willing to choose one of the spouses to take care of their children at home full-time.
A survey by the Shanghai Women's Federation found that although there are relevant provisions in the Civil Code, in actual judgments, the application of the divorce economic compensation system in judicial practice is more cautious, and the number of cases in which the right to claim compensation is not much. Influenced by the traditional view of "male outside, female inside", in this process, women are often more likely to become the active bearers of family labor, and their rights and interests are infringed.
The representative's suggestion: Multi-pronged approach to solve fertility confusion for mothers
How can we better protect the rights and interests of mothers and reduce women's reproductive pressure? Let women who are willing to have children dare to have children?
At this year's Shanghai Two Sessions, many deputies and members gave constructive opinions on how to protect the rights and interests of mothers.
In terms of protecting the rights and interests of full-time mothers, the Shanghai Women's Federation submitted the "Suggestions on Improving Local Regulations and Improving the Application of the Divorce Economic Compensation System by Judicial Organs" in response to the current problem of prudent application of the divorce economic compensation system in the currently widespread judicial practice.
The Shanghai Women's Federation believes that although housework is an indispensable part of family life, the value of housework has not received enough attention. Although one party in the family has made choices that are detrimental to personal career development for the sake of the overall interests of the family, they are generally not considered in judicial practice and are unfair.
The Shanghai Municipal Women's Federation pointed out that at present, the "Shanghai Municipal Implementation Measures" have entered the process of revising the law. It is recommended that local regulations further improve the divorce economic compensation system on the basis of the Civil Code, fully consider the situation that the woman bears more obligations or sacrifices her own development opportunities due to the needs of family interests such as raising children, and gives the woman the right to request compensation from the other party in the event of divorce.
In view of the difficulty of quantifying the contribution of domestic work to the family, the Shanghai Women's Federation suggested that the Shanghai Municipal High Court carry out a comprehensive study to formulate and issue the "Guiding Opinions" in Shanghai, in the process of economic compensation, not only consider the current situation of the marital property, but also take into account the significant improvement of one party's human capital (such as work experience, academic qualifications, etc.) in the marriage relationship. It is recommended that the court optimize the procedural and institutionalized provisions, and take the initiative to explain the right to claim compensation to the parties in the divorce proceedings, so as to avoid the situation that the parties do not know the right to claim economic compensation for divorce, resulting in the loss of rights and interests.
In addition, in view of the difficulty of full-time mothers returning to work and the lack of ability to resist risks, Shen Lijuan, a deputy to the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and part-time vice chairman of the Fengxian District Women's Federation, suggested that we should start from the top-level design, increase the guidance and support for the flexible labor market, tilt the flexible employment policy to women, especially the full-time mother group, and help those women who give up their careers due to childbirth to return to their families to alleviate economic pressure, enhance employment opportunities, realize personal value, and better balance between family and career.
In terms of protecting the rights and interests of working mothers, the Shanghai Women's Federation suggested that the creation of family-friendly enterprises should be promoted to help employees balance the relationship between "work and family".
A survey by the Shanghai Women's Federation found that although the city's enterprises have a high degree of recognition of the concept of family friendliness, most enterprises lack systematic family-friendly institutional arrangements. Therefore, the Shanghai Women's Federation suggested that the city should compile practical guidelines, carry out the pilot creation of family-friendly enterprises, formulate corresponding family-friendly enterprise identification standards and carry out identification work. At the same time, the city should strengthen guidance and support, improve the policy incentives for family-friendly enterprises, and set up different tax incentives for enterprises that reach different proportions of married and childbearing female employees, so as to supplement the costs incurred by enterprises due to childbirth support in various forms.
The Shanghai Women's Federation also suggested that family-friendly enterprises be given tax incentives and subsidies in reference to preferential policies for the employment of the disabled. For enterprises that have won the title of family-friendly enterprise, it is recommended to give incentives in relevant inspections and selections, such as customs declaration, enterprise annual inspection, project introduction, talent training and rental housing. Priority will be given to projects such as the construction of mother and baby rooms and the establishment of nurseries in enterprises in the examination and approval process.
In view of the high cost of childcare commonly encountered by families, a number of people's congress deputies also gave relevant suggestions.
Chen Jie, a deputy to the Municipal People's Congress, suggested that enterprises can be encouraged to build nurseries by following the previous system of employee nurseries and effectively alleviating the problem of difficult care for children aged 0 to 3.
Shen Lijuan, a deputy to the Municipal People's Congress, believes that the current relevant policies can basically cover children aged 0 to 1, as well as children after the age of 3, and children aged 2 to 3 have become the blind spots of preschool education. It is recommended to build childcare institutions for children aged 2 to 3 in corporate parks and commercial buildings, so that children in this age group can better obtain parental companionship, and so that young parents in the workplace can reduce the pressure of childcare.
Reporter Zhang Yiwei Intern Cao Simeng Image source: Visual China
(Morning News)