Lin Yong, a deputy to the National People's Congress: It is recommended that "husband and wife take maternity leave together" and men should assume more childcare responsibilities

Lin Yong, a deputy to the National People's Congress, put forward a proposal to the NPC session on "joint maternity leave for husband and wife." (Photo/Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Since being elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress in April 2018, Lin Yong, vice chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association and professor of South China Normal University, has proposed to the National People's Congress three times that "husband and wife take maternity leave together" and "force men to share childcare obligations".

On the evening of March 7, 2021, he talked to the Southern Weekend reporter about the original intention of advocating "husband and wife maternity leave", which was to see that women of childbearing age encountered many practical obstacles in job hunting and career development, "The graduate students I have brought have generally encountered the situation that recruitment units tend to choose male job seekers when they are twenty-five or six years old."

Lin Yong believes that these young women are often in a dilemma between the "birth" of the family and the "promotion" of the workplace; but whether it is from the perspective of the healthy growth of children or the creation of a harmonious family atmosphere, men should assume more parenting responsibilities.

Recently, the National Health commission said in response to Lin Yong's suggestion that the longer the setting of maternity leave, the better, you can first strive to achieve joint maternity leave for husband and wife, on this basis, according to the level of China's economic and social development, timely promote the extension of maternity leave.

"Helping women in the traditional way is to give them longer maternity leave, but I think another way to promote women's rights is to make both men and women more fair." Lin Yong insisted.

<h3>"Couples taking maternity leave together" may solve the gender dilemma</h3>

In the past few years, Lin Yong found that the female graduate students he had brought had encountered more or less different degrees of "gender problems" when seeking employment.

"Many students will tell me about their workplace experience even after graduating for many years, some companies are reluctant to recruit female employees because women want to take maternity leave, some female employees want to be promoted and choose not to have children, some female employees have a second child, no one can help with the baby, and can only resign and return to the family..."

Lin Yong lamented for them, and also worried that women's plight in the workplace will further exacerbate gender inequality, especially after the introduction of the two-child policy, all localities have extended maternity leave as a supporting guarantee for the policy, but this extension is far from enough for two-child families.

In the proposal submitted in 2021, Lin Yong outlined the specific reasons why the fertility and two-child policies have a negative impact on women's career development:

On the one hand, employers have reduced the probability of admission of women of childbearing age, and many working women have become their "career inflection point"; on the other hand, the father of the second child who should jointly raise the child only has 7-30 days of paternity leave, and the main responsibility for raising children and taking care of the family falls on the mother, and they are completely insufficient to share the responsibility of taking care of the family.

After studying male parental leave in Sweden, Norway, France and other countries, Lin Yong believes that forcing men to share childcare tasks is an effective way to directly reduce the negative impact of childbearing on women's career development, correct gender inequities, and improve women's willingness to have children, so as to achieve better results in the comprehensive two-child policy. At the same time, it can also improve the effect of family education and help children grow up physically and mentally.

Therefore, Lin Yong suggested extending the number of men's vacation days in a planned and step-by-step manner: including amending relevant laws so that both husband and wife can enjoy maternity leave together; combining paternity leave with maternity leave and taking it together, of which male maternity leave is recommended to be more than 42 days; it is recommended that both men and women be allowed to apply for an extension of the total leave of both husband and wife to 42 weeks on the basis of statutory maternity leave and provincial incentive maternity leave, and the relevant subsidies and reimbursements will be given by the government.

"Allowing men to take maternity leave has somehow shortened the gap between men and women in the workplace, and this effect may have a more positive impact than simply extending women's maternity leave." Lin Yong told Southern Weekend reporters.

<h3>Male parental leave has been a long-standing cry</h3>

At present, the maternity leave that women who marry and have children are formulated by the Population and Family Planning Law of the People's Republic of China, the Special Provisions on the Labor Protection of Female Employees and the relevant provisions of the Population and Family Planning Regulations of the provinces across the country.

According to the Special Provisions on the Labor Protection of Female Employees promulgated and implemented in 2012, female employees enjoy 98 days of maternity leave when giving birth. At the same time, each province also rewards eligible women with additional holidays ranging from 30 days to 1 year according to their own circumstances.

Statistics show that the current maternity leave in all provinces across the country ranges from 128-365 days, the maternity leave for women in Beijing, Shanghai, Hubei and other places is 128 days, the maternity leave in 16 provinces including Jilin and Hunan is 158 days, the maternity leave in Guangdong is 178-208 days, and the longest maternity leave in Tibet is 365 days.

Different provinces also provide for men to enjoy nursing leave ranging from 7-30 days. Statistics show that 21 provinces, including Beijing, Guangdong, Hubei and Xinjiang, stipulate that men have 15 days of nursing leave.

Whether men should be entitled to nursing leave and to what extent they should participate in reproductive care has also been debated for a long time. In 2006, the Male Nursing Leave Research Group of the Women's Research Center of the Central Party School conducted a survey on male parental leave in Beijing, Jiangsu, Xi'an, Zhengzhou and other places. At that time, the survey showed that more than 80% of the respondents believed that childbirth was a common matter between husband and wife; 96.7% of men were willing and able to undertake childbirth affairs; and 92.2% of them were positive about the view that "taking maternity care leave is also a man's right".

To this end, the proposal of "husband and wife taking maternity leave together" at the two sessions in 2019 was released, which was immediately discussed by netizens. Lin Yong recalled that after the proposal was submitted in 2019, the staff of the National Health Commission communicated with him by phone and said that they would conduct relevant research on the proposal.

<h3>Explore the implementation of parental leave</h3>

During the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2021, in addition to Lin Yong, a number of representatives and members also put forward relevant suggestions for "combined maternity leave for men and women" and for men to extend paternity leave:

Jin Li, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, proposed that in the future, compulsory paternity leave for men could be achieved by improving the legal system of paternity leave for men; Yu Qingming, a deputy to the National People's Congress and principal of the Second Middle School in Yucheng District, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, suggested that the paternity leave for male spouses should be written into the labor law; Ding Lei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, also suggested that a system of shared maternity leave for husband and wife could be introduced as appropriate to improve men's joint parenting responsibility.

Southern Weekend reporters found that in recent years, the health department has also taken a more positive attitude when replying to the suggestions of the deputies and members on "joint maternity leave for husband and wife."

In September 2018, the National Health Commission's reply was that "husband and wife vacation" should fully consider the purpose and legislative intention of establishing maternity leave and maternity incentive leave for female employees, but also "fully consider the actual needs of newborn feeding, the production and operation order of both employees and employees, and how to pay labor remuneration, social insurance premiums and replacement expenses during the leave, and who should bear it."

In September 2019, the National Health Commission proposed in another reply: "With the continuous improvement of the country's economic strength and the change of the people's concept of childbearing and parenting, the proportion of men taking maternity leave in China should gradually increase... Will continue to work with the relevant departments... Actively put forward opinions and suggestions to the legislature and relevant departments, and promote the improvement of relevant laws and regulations. ”

Recently, the National Health Commission gave a more specific answer to Lin Yong's suggestion, "It is necessary to set up a pluralistic and coordinated setting of maternity holidays for men and women, emphasizing the common responsibility of both parents." We can consider making steady progress step by step, first striving to realize the joint maternity leave of husband and wife, and on this basis, according to the level of China's economic and social development, we can then promote the extension of maternity leave in a timely manner. ”

Lin Yong fully affirmed the reply of the health department, but he hoped that in the next step of the government's work, more departments, including human resources and social security, finance, taxation, and women's federations, would provide follow-up support.

Li Huiying, deputy director and professor of the Women's Research Center of the Party School of the Cpc Central Committee, told Southern Weekend that the current intertwining of social issues and gender issues will prompt government departments to pay more attention to and focus on solving existing problems.

On March 6, 2021, the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the 2035 long-term goals was submitted to the Fourth Session of the 13th National People's Congress for review. The expression "exploring the implementation of parental leave" appeared in the draft, and the word "father" was added, which made the members and experts of the People's Congress who were interviewed quite excited, and "parental leave" is expected to be on the track of specific policy formulation and implementation faster.

Southern Weekend reporter Wang Xuqiulin