Chinese authorities hope that additional leave will help women find their "other half"
According to BBC, many companies in China have begun providing unmarried female employees with additional leave in the hope that this time off work will help women find love and start a family.
For example, two companies in Hangzhou are giving their unmarried female employees over 30 additional leave, writes the South China Morning Post. These two companies followed the example of one of the city's schools, where unmarried female teachers began to be given extra days off so they would have time to go on dates.
In China, unmarried women over the age of 25 are often called the derogatory term "sheng nu," which translates from Chinese as "leftover women." However, more and more women are choosing not to marry and focus on their careers. Nevertheless, societal pressure for women to marry and have children has not gone away.
The growing number of unmarried women is also causing concern for the Chinese government: the fact is that in the near future, China may face the problem of an aging population and labor shortages.
Leta Hong Fincher, author of the book "Leftover Women," believes that the stigmatization of unmarried women is also a result of a propaganda campaign by the Chinese government. "It's all tied to the government's efforts to push women, and educated women in particular, toward marriage and childbearing," explains Leta Hong Fincher.
Despite the fact that China's one-child policy was abolished in 2015, the birth rate situation has not changed: its level continues to decline. In 2018, 15 million children were born in China, 2 million fewer than in 2017.
Leta Hong Fincher says there is a serious gender imbalance in the country because for a long time it was more advantageous for families in China to have a boy. "Indeed, there are significantly fewer women in China. According to government data, there are now 30 million more men than women in the country," she says.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says that if the birth rate continues to fall, China's population could shrink from the current 1.4 billion to 1.2 billion people in the next 50 years. If we also consider the aging population factor, we can talk about a serious financial burden on the social security system.
It is not entirely clear how extra days off can help a woman find her "other half" and have children. HR manager of Hangzhou Songcheng Performance, Huang Lei, says free time is necessary for building new social connections.
"Many working women have a very narrow social circle. So we hope that if they have more free time, they will have more opportunities to communicate with the opposite sex," Huang Lei said in an interview with Zhejiang Online. According to him, the company's female employees responded well to the idea of providing additional leave for "personal life."
However, Leta Hong Fincher believes this initiative will not be very effective. "It's just another experiment, among many others. The fact is that women are increasingly in no hurry to get married and have children," she says.