Liang Jianzhang: Jointly build a women-friendly and fertility-friendly society

Coinciding with Women's Day, it is time to talk about the equal rights issue of women's career development.

In traditional agricultural societies, women's employment rights and social status are far inferior to those of men due to their physical superiority. But with the continuous development of society, especially after entering the post-industrial era, men's physical advantages are often no longer conducive to work, except that they are still valuable in a few areas such as sports. And in terms of intelligence and emotional intelligence, women are not weaker than men. Therefore, in theory, women can completely equalize their career development.

In fact, since industrialization, women's status and career development have indeed been comprehensively improved. Worldwide, the average employment rate for women aged 15-64 was 52.6% worldwide, 68.57% for Chinese women and 81.25% for Nordic Sweden, according to world bank data.

Of course, the status quo is still a certain distance from true equality. Although all kinds of gender discrimination have been completely prohibited by law, there are still some customs in the concept, such as women are considered to take on more household chores, etc., which still bring about gender-based differences. In addition to this, since women often bear most of the cost of parenting in the child-rearing process, it may also lead to an income disadvantage. For example, look at the 2018 gap between the median earnings of men and women in full-time work: the average is 11% in the EU and 22% in China. Many studies have shown that the income gap between men and women is mainly due to better career development for men in senior positions. In general, the proportion of women among people such as business executives, top scientists and politicians is well below 50%. Therefore, even if Chinese women are no longer in the past in terms of occupational equality, there is still a gap compared to men. Many people believe that this is because women need to pay more for their children, so they will be at a disadvantage in terms of career development. For working women, because of the birth of a child and lead to career development interruption of at least half a year to a year, if you have two or three children, the time affected will be as high as two or three years or even more, and these two or three years are often the golden stage of the career, the final result is that the mother's career development is greatly affected by childbirth.

On the other hand, China's fertility rate continues to decline, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, China's birth population hit a new low since 1949, only 10.62 million people, the birth rate of the population was 7.52 ‰, the lowest level on record, according to this data, China's total fertility rate in 2021 is only 1.15, not only lower than almost all countries in the world, but also much lower than Japan, which has seriously fewer children and aging. The average willingness to have children (the ideal number of children) Chinese is also almost the lowest in the world. According to OECD data, the average ideal number of children in most countries is more than 2, and the results of the Multiple Fertility Survey show that the average ideal number of children in Chinese is less than 2. According to the specific analysis of the Yuwa Population Research "China Parenting Cost Report 2022 Edition", one of the most important factors that cause China's low fertility rate and affect the willingness of families of childbearing age is the high cost of childbirth, and the cost of childbirth, in addition to the direct cost of housing and education, is the opportunity cost of career development. This issue is especially important for working mothers, after all, the cost of giving birth and caring for children is mainly borne by women. Therefore, how to create a friendly social environment to help women balance family and career development is a particularly meaningful public policy issue.

Women's social status does not contradict the birth of children

Some people say that having children affects women's social status as well as career development. Is this really the case? In fact, the two are not necessarily contradictory. According to international data, although in many low-income countries and Muslim countries, the status of women and the participation rate of women in work are relatively low in the case of relatively high fertility rates; in developed countries with high welfare such as Northern Europe, the social status and participation rate of women are very high, and the fertility rate is also very high. Sweden, for example, is recognized to be one of the most successful countries in ensuring gender equality in the world today, and Sweden's new Succession to the Throne Law gives women and men the same inheritance rights as men, thus becoming the first monarchy to declare the primogeniture (daughter) of both men and women to inherit the throne. In the Swedish parliament, the proportion of women in 2021 accounted for 47%, the labor force participation rate of women aged 15-64 was as high as 81%, and in recent years, Sweden's fertility rate has reached 1.9, which is one of the highest fertility rates in developed countries. In Iceland, women are more than 70 per cent in the workforce. Thanks to generous childcare benefits, Iceland also has one of the highest fertility rates in Europe, with a fertility rate of 2.0. It can be seen that women's career development, social status and fertility rate are not contradictory, and when the fertility benefits are very good, women's status and fertility rate can be improved simultaneously.

That's why we put forward the following public policy recommendations to reduce the cost of childcare and help women achieve a win-win situation for families and careers.

1. Increase the number of nurseries and expand childcare services

At present, there is a serious shortage of childcare services for children under 3 years of age in China. At present, there are nearly 50 million infants and young children under the age of 3 in the mainland, but there are very few social institutions that can provide infant and young child care services, and the enrollment rate of infants and young children under 3 years old in various childcare institutions in the country is only 4.1%. According to the OECD Family Database, the average enrolment rate for children under 3 years of age (exclus) in developed countries is 35%, far exceeding the ENI rate in China. There are 11 countries where the enrolment rate of children under 3 years of age exceeds 50%, of which the highest is 63.3% in Luxembourg, 59.7% in Iceland, and more than 55% in the Netherlands, France, Norway, South Korea and Belgium.

As can be seen from the chart above, China's trust rate is less than 5%, which is much lower than that of other countries. If they can't find a nursery, dual-career parents have only two options: one is to hire a nanny for a long time, and the other is for the elderly to help with care. But now many elderly people are facing the situation of delayed retirement, and they are not willing to bring children, especially the second and third children, and the nanny is becoming more and more expensive. So the only option left is for one of them to temporarily interrupt their work. Often, it is the mother of the child who makes the sacrifice, which can have a very serious impact on a woman's career. We recommend the construction of nurseries in large quantities, with the government bearing most of the operating costs, to increase the enrolment rate of children aged 0-3 to about 50%. Consideration can also be given to bringing in foreign nannies from Southeast Asia and other places to further reduce the cost of childcare.

2. Provide equal parental leave for men and women, and the government bears the labor costs during the maternity leave

According to the Mainland's "Special Provisions on the Labor Protection of Female Employees", female employees enjoy 98 days of maternity leave, of which 15 days can be taken before childbirth, and some provinces have recently extended maternity leave. We recommend that the government cover part of the costs of maternity leave by increasing childcare subsidies. Otherwise, it will lead to the reluctance of enterprises to recruit women of childbearing age, resulting in invisible employment discrimination.

In addition, if only women's parental leave is extended, it is easy to lead to the reluctance of enterprises to recruit women, thus exacerbating the gender discrimination suffered by women in the job market. To that end, we propose a policy of parental leave with relative equality between men and women. From international experience, many high-welfare countries have longer parental leave with relatively equal sexes. For example, Sweden's fertility policy encourages both couples to participate in child-rearing. Currently, Swedish parents together are entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave, of which 90 days each are granted to the other. This is mainly to ensure that parenting responsibilities are shared fairly with parents, but also to encourage male employees to take maternity leave (even some countries force men to take maternity leave), so that men can take responsibility and obligations for parenting and accompanying children together. Sweden's fertility rate in recent years has been around 1.8, second only to France among European countries. Experience in countries such as Europe has shown that the integration of gender equality in family roles into parental leave systems and the adoption of the law on the family responsibilities of fathers can not only promote equal opportunities in the workplace for men and women and the sharing of responsibilities in domestic work, but also contribute to the elimination of gender discrimination in the job market.

3. Promote flexible office mode

We encourage companies to allow employees to flexibly arrange their working hours and locations, especially pregnant and lactating women can work from home. China's high-tech companies, represented by Ctrip, are actively experimenting with the hybrid office model and have achieved good results. Not only has there been no decline in work efficiency, but it has also greatly improved employee satisfaction, and at the same time, the social effect is also obvious, not only reducing congestion for commuting, but also conducive to environmental protection, family harmony and easing high housing prices.

Most importantly, this measure is particularly popular with female employees who have just given birth and can make professional women gain more. On the one hand, through the mixed office model, they can work from home for 2 days, saving a few hours of commuting time every week, so they can have more time to spend with their children and help them reduce the original heavy parenting pressure. On the other hand, male employees can also have more time to spend with children and share housework, which can well alleviate the anxiety of professional women, reduce the pressure and conflict of career development and childcare, and improve the willingness of women of childbearing age to have children. We also hope that more companies will join the ranks of promoting flexible working models in the future.

4. Open assisted reproductive technologies, including single women can also freeze eggs

Modern working women have to balance their careers and families, and there is often a conflict in energy and time. For many occupations today, a bachelor's degree or even a master's degree is the lowest educational allocation. In this context, a young woman has to be 24-25 years old to complete her undergraduate and master's studies and enter the workforce. If she only considers getting married after work and is less lucky enough to have an unsuccessful relationship or two, she is likely to be in her mid-thirties by the time she actually gets married. However, the best age for women to have children is before the age of 35, and for those women who have not yet found a suitable partner at the age of 35, without technical help, they are likely to lose the opportunity to raise children for life. To solve this problem, we need to rely on the power of science and technology. The biggest benefit of egg freezing and other assisted reproductive technologies is to extend the reproductive window of these women and help them fulfill their desire to become mothers.

The Code of Human Assisted Reproduction (WeiKe Jiaofa [2003] No. 176) issued by the former Ministry of Health stipulates: "It is forbidden to implement human assisted reproductive technology for couples and single women who do not comply with the provisions of the national population and family planning regulations and regulations." "In practice, this provision causes single women to be unable to use artificial assisted reproduction related techniques such as sperm banking and egg freezing to exercise their reproductive rights." This provision can actually be attributed to the past policy of restricting births, but now that China's birth policy has shifted from restricting births to encouraging fertility, the previous regulations should be adjusted accordingly. Now some single women are willing to use their money and time to try to have children, which is actually conducive to increasing the fertility rate, and there is no reason to prohibit these good things that benefit the country and the people.

5. Educational reform and shortening of the school system

Now enterprises are recruiting more and more master's students, resulting in more and more fierce competition for graduate school. For Chinese students, they need to face three stressful examinations from adolescence, such as the middle school entrance examination, the college entrance examination and the examination for the examination, and each test has caused a huge waste of time. The reason these exams used to exist was because high school education and university education were in short supply, and now there is an overall surplus of educational resources in high schools and even universities. We should popularize high school and university undergraduate education, and at the same time cancel the middle school entrance examination and dilute the college entrance examination, and use the college graduation examination (similar to the examination) as the main basis for screening outstanding talents. In this way, the time spent on the revision of the middle school entrance examination and the college entrance examination at the secondary school stage can be saved. In the 12 years of basic education that Chinese students are now experiencing, at least two years have been wasted on coping with the college entrance examination and the middle school entrance examination, and we propose to shorten the primary and secondary schools from 12 years to 10 years to completely solve the problem of education.

Shortening the school system is particularly beneficial for girls, who are already more mature than boys and can graduate and work earlier. If girls can graduate from university at the age of 20, graduate from a master's degree at the age of 22, and enter the society two or three years in advance, they can have more time to fall in love, get married, have children, and better balance family and career development.

epilogue

With the dramatic increase in the status and independence of women, humanity has bid farewell to a "patriarchal society.". This is a huge step forward, but it could also cause a rapid decline in marriage and fertility rates. However, from an international perspective, improving fertility and women's status is not contradictory, and the Nordic countries can achieve the simultaneous improvement of women's status and social welfare, and have successfully avoided the low fertility trap, which is worth learning from. A fertility-friendly society must also be a female-friendly society. We believe that women's full career development should be effectively guaranteed from the aspects of increasing nurseries, promoting mixed offices, providing equal parental leave for men and women, and opening up assisted reproductive technologies, so as to help women with fertility aspirations to achieve a win-win situation in family and career.