Mother is the hardest "profession" in the world, and it is a test of women's dual identity to play the role of mother and balance career development. A few days ago, the Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Guangdong Province issued the "Implementation Opinions on Implementing the "Mother's Post" Employment Model to Promote Women's Employment (Draft for Comments)", proposing to extensively develop the "mother's post" to absorb women under the legal working age who have the obligation to support children under the age of 12 to work, and the working hours and management mode are relatively flexible, which is convenient for taking care of work and childcare. Coincidentally, Ms. Ge of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, posted photos of the company allowing employees to occasionally bring their babies to work. Two things caused heated discussions among netizens. Whether it is taking the baby to work or setting up a "mother's post", it is to help build a childbirth-friendly society and high-quality population development. Whether or not we can handle this issue well is not only related to small families, but also to the big society, and it is a major matter that concerns two generations.
Set up a "mother's post" to make life more "warm"
□ guest commentator Liu Yan
Recently, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security issued a draft for comments, intending to implement the "mother's post" to promote the employment of women of childbearing age, which was hotly discussed by netizens. In fact, the state has always encouraged the "mother's post". In July 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Decision on Optimizing Fertility Policies to Promote Long-term Balanced Population Development, which clearly states that "employers are encouraged to formulate measures that are conducive to employees balancing work and family relationships, and to negotiate and determine flexible leave and flexible working methods conducive to taking care of infants and young children in accordance with the law". According to public information, the earliest establishment of "Mother Gang" in the country is Hubei Wuhan Jiashi Garment Co., Ltd. Since 2023, more and more places have explored the implementation of "mother's post", such as Qimen, Anhui Province, Putian in Fujian Province, and Shijingshan in Beijing City have successively launched employment models such as "mother's post", "accompanying reading post" and "new format class".
Professor Liu Shilin, chief expert of urban science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, believes that a "city with temperature" in the true sense contains three connotations: "natural temperature", "social temperature" and "human temperature".
In the face of fierce competition in the job market, cities have not forgotten the "shoulder-to-shoulder" mothers, and find ways to provide them with a platform to support life and dignity, which represents the progress of our society. The living conditions of women are a mirror of society, but also an important cornerstone of fertility values and children's values, solving women's fertility and parenting difficulties is an important step for us to build a harmonious society, but also an important symbol to build a childbirth-friendly society, so these pioneering cities set a good example for us.
It can be seen that with the recovery of economic operation, the "social temperature" is at a key point where demand is bursting. As the second batch of pilot projects to build a national child-friendly city, Qingdao is also constantly pioneering and innovating to improve the "temperature". A few days ago, the nearly 1,000-square-meter Licang District Employee Children Caring Care Center was officially opened, providing inclusive childcare and childcare services for the vast number of employees in Licang District and alleviating the "difficulty of bringing children" for employees.
Under the economic tide, the field of "social temperature" and "human temperature" of the city is constantly expanding, and many "cares" that we ignore are gradually returning to our lives. The same is true of the emergence of "Mama Gang". It is hoped that governments and enterprises at all levels and the whole society can take active action to raise the "temperature" of our lives, and make unremitting efforts to create a better employment environment and a more harmonious society.
(The author is a teacher at the School of Animation and Media, Qingdao Agricultural University)
Gather the power of "her" and dream of a new era
□ guest commentator Shi Yan
At the 2023 Spring Festival Gala, a song "Is a Mother is a Daughter" moved the north and south, and the song showed the multiple social roles and delicate and complex emotions of contemporary women in the form of a dialogue between a mother and her daughter. With the development of the times and the improvement of education, the role of modern women in society is not only the main body of childbirth, but also an important talent resource, the implementation of the "mother's post" employment model, can alleviate the multiple pressures of women of childbearing age to take care of young children and work, help to improve social productivity and economic vitality, and help promote long-term balanced population development.
Lenin pointed out in "To Women Workers" that the proletariat cannot achieve complete freedom without fighting for the complete freedom of women. An important embodiment of women's freedom is to participate in the management of enterprises and the management of the state through complete social practice, and to participate in all aspects of social production and life. The "mother's post" employment model focuses on the current practical problems faced by women's employment, helps women of childbearing age to better realize their self-worth, and opens up social space for women's independent development. At the same time, although the "mother's post" guarantees women's equal employment rights to a certain extent, in terms of optimizing the development environment for women and jointly building a childbirth-friendly society, the establishment of "mother's post" can only alleviate some problems, and more flexible management models need to be explored.
"Like a stream around the world, embracing the river where it was born", before becoming a mother, every mother was also a child, and the desire for continuous growth allowed women to constantly explore their potential and strive to improve their self-worth. The characteristics of women are also an important manifestation of social civilization. The Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2021-2030) points out that gender equality and women's all-round development are important indicators to measure the progress of social civilization.
Employment is the most basic livelihood. The exploration and implementation of the "mother's post" employment model shows that government departments attach great importance to women's employment and development. The positive efficiency and sustainable development of "Mommy Post" require not only the active encouragement and reasonable guidance of the government, but also the joint promotion of resources from all parties in society. Generally speaking, in the new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, guaranteeing women's equal participation rights in all fields of political, economic, cultural, social and family life is not only an inevitable requirement for promoting all-round human development, but also provides a broad space for women to realize their self-worth and show their strength.
(The author is a doctoral candidate at the School of Marxism, China University of Petroleum (East China))
"Mom's Gang" is commendable, but it still needs to be worked together
□ contributing commentator Song Shoushan
Do you want to have another child? When many people think about this problem, the first thing they think about is not ability? Rather, is there time? Have the energy? After all, many mothers with two treasures or even three treasures have almost become time management masters, and even face a choice between career and family.
In the face of this situation, some regions and units are also making various attempts for this, such as the emergence of "mother post". A series of measures such as the flexible working system and no forced overtime work of the "mother's post" have largely alleviated the problem of difficult balance between work and family, and also reduced women's fertility concerns, which has been well received by public opinion. However, "Mom's Gang" is a comprehensive problem that requires sustained efforts from many parties.
On the one hand, enterprises should change their management thinking. Before advocating "mom posts" in many places, some companies have begun to make similar attempts. This is not only a moral choice made in the face of mothers, but also a change in the thinking of internal management and operation mode for the company itself. Because relatively loose internal management does not mean that work efficiency is necessarily reduced. We often see in the news that some "other people's" companies, not only can raise some flowers and plants cats and dogs during work, but also between superiors and subordinates are not so "solemn", such companies do not have low work efficiency, profitability decline, on the contrary, employee loyalty and work efficiency have been greatly improved. So, will the same be true for some female workers with babies who have relatively flexible working hours?
On the other hand, society should carry out diversified exploration. Of course, we are happy to see more and more "mothers" provided from the enterprise level to benefit families, society and enterprises. However, to solve this problem of mothers, we cannot only start from the perspective of enterprises, but also need the joint efforts of the whole society. After all, not all employers and positions can meet the requirements of the "mom post". For example, if mothers are allowed to work flexibly, will there be some problems in the management of the company? Is it cost-effective in terms of human resource costs? These are all issues that enterprise managers need to think about when setting up "mother posts", and even the concerns of enterprises. After all, enterprises should not only pay attention to social welfare, fulfill social responsibilities, but also fulfill their responsibilities as business entities.
The establishment of the "mother's post" has made a good start, but it cannot stop at the "mother's post". To deal with and solve the fertility problem, whether it is the government, enterprises or individuals, there is still a long way to go, and there is still a lot of exploration to try. In the final analysis, to solve the problem of working mothers, relevant departments need to take more responsibilities and explore more and more feasible solutions to deal with and solve this problem.
(The author is an associate professor and head of the Research Center for Media and Social Development, Qingdao University of Science and Technology)
Interactive messages
@邓海建:
Bringing a baby and going to work are not necessarily the relationship between fish and bear's paw. Under the premise of improving the accessibility and inclusiveness of public services, relevant departments may wish to encourage and support the "Allow children to work" initiative, so that children can have a place to go and trust in the summer or special moments, and truly support the stability and long-term development of the economy and society with high-quality population development.
@逯海涛:
The original intention of "Mom's Post" is to increase employment opportunities for young mothers. However, some people are more cautious about the attitude of "mother post", believing that the establishment of "mother post" may be counterproductive, which invisibly increases the employment cost of female employees in enterprises. Therefore, while implementing the "mother post", relevant departments should also pay attention to providing relevant policy support to enterprises and enhance the enthusiasm of enterprises to set up "mother posts".
@杨晗:
"Family" and "workplace" should not become multiple-choice questions either. "Mother post" allows professional women to have both "family" and "career", which is the strength for women to afford and dare to live. The issue of fertility is related to the national plan, and many parties must work together to make women of childbearing age truly feel "friendly".
@陈鹰:
In many countries and regions, similar "mother's posts" have always existed, the main purpose is to come up with suitable positions to help the disadvantaged or special groups in society, so that they can have job opportunities while living their due dignity and social value.
@李易:
To make the "mother's post" a "good time" to stimulate childbirth, while focusing on increasing women's employment opportunities, the government needs to effectively reduce the burden of family care for women who give birth through supporting policies such as increasing the supply of inclusive childcare services and elderly care services, so that they can not only "do something", but also "work with peace of mind and work for a long time".