With The Double Pressure Of "Workplace + Childcare", 50 Percent Of Working Mothers Call On Enterprises And Society To Bear The Responsibility Of Childbearing

On the occasion of Mother's Day 2023, the work and life situation of working mothers is under the spotlight. A research questionnaire was released for working people, and in-depth interviews were conducted with working women in different industries and positions, such as business managers of advertising agencies and middle management of enterprises and institutions, to gain insights into the work and life status of working mothers, and the Working Mothers' Survival Survey Report 2023 was released to call on the whole society to pay common attention to the difficulties faced by working mothers, and to give more attention and support to this group together.

The overall career situation of working mothers is improving. According to the survey, with the development of the general environment, 26.5% of working mothers think that they will definitely be promoted or have a higher possibility of being promoted within one year, which is significantly higher than 10.2% in 2022, and higher than 13.4% and 8.4% of unmarried and childless women, respectively. It is also higher than the 13.4% of unmarried women and 8.5% of married women without children. The data reflects that working mothers' self-confidence has increased significantly, and their status as "mothers" has not lowered their self-confidence.

In addition, 57.3% of working mothers believe that their work performance is better than that of their female counterparts at the same level, up from 44.4% last year, and significantly higher than the 34.6% of unmarried women and 44.4% of married women without children. This shows that working mothers have a higher opinion of themselves than other working women. When compared with male colleagues at the same level, 46% of working mothers chose "better", up from 35.9% last year, and significantly higher than 35.3% of unmarried women and 37.7% of married women without children. According to the report, motherhood gives working mothers added "armor" and a stronger sense of self-confidence.

From a subjective level, the data shows that working mothers are full of confidence and motivation, and show positive attitudes in their future workplace expectations and self-assessment of their work. However, back to the reality, working mothers are facing the double pressure of work and life, which deserves further attention.

Workplace work and household chores belong to the same category of labor, and the cumulative working hours of both, the working hours of working mothers is amazing. Data show that nearly half of the working mothers work more than 9 hours a day and spend more time doing housework than men. A total of 48.5% of working mothers work more than 9 hours a day, higher than 34% of unmarried women and 39% of married women without children. This shows that working mothers work harder than other working women.

In interviews, many working moms say they are "busy", "urgent", and "all on one breath". Wake up at 6:00 a.m. is the norm, working mothers not only make breakfast for the baby, but also contracted to send the baby to school, pick up the baby home, with the baby is the daily necessity of the daily routine. Research data also shows that 67.5% of working mothers do housework for more than 2 hours a day, much higher than the 16% of working fathers.

As a career and childcare working people, 44.5% of working mothers feel the double pressure of "work + childcare", while 37.9% of working fathers have stronger feelings about this. After becoming mothers, working women spend more time and energy on taking care of and nurturing their children, and therefore feel the "double pressure" more deeply. At the same time, 34.8% of working mothers worry that they are too busy at work to spend time with their children, while 32.3% of working mothers think that they have too little time for personal study/entertainment. It is clear that working mothers want to balance their careers and families and perform better in both directions.

To date, it is still more common for women to be responsible for housework and childcare. There is no shortage of working women being asked how to balance career and family, and how to take on the role of a mother while being a good worker. In response, Jiang Shengnan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has publicly stated that the preconceived answer to this question is the belief that women should sacrifice their careers for their families. A reasonable distribution of household chores and parenting work with a partner has been called for by the international community, but to date, women's survival in the workplace still needs to be further improved.

Working mothers interviewed in this study generally agreed that women still face "invisible rules" in the job search process and when taking leave from work. A working mother engaged in administrative work said that although organizations do not directly ask about marital status when recruiting, there are still hidden rules when considering the actual situation, and employers still tend to give priority to men.

As for gender injustice in the workplace, 50.8% of working mothers think that the reason is "childbirth is a burden that women can't get rid of", which is higher than that of working fathers (33.8%), and lower than that of working mothers (64.4%) last year. Compared with last year, working mothers' sense of destiny has decreased, but compared with men, they still feel the impact of childbearing.

Accordingly, 50.8% of working mothers think that "enterprises and society should bear the burden of childbearing" is the core element to promote gender equality, higher than 40.8% of working fathers. "Breaking the social stereotype of gender", accounting for 41.3%. Working fathers ranked "respecting gender differences to bring about a different division of labor in society" as the second most important, accounting for 36.5% of the total. On the issue of promoting gender equality in the workplace, there is a big difference between the views of working fathers and working mothers.

In the interviews, working mothers also mentioned the need for help from their spouses, companies and society, which can help them bear part of the burden of childbearing and enable women to develop better. A working mother who works as a business manager in an advertising company expressed her hope that when her child is sick or when the school holds an event and she needs to take time off, the company can spit out fewer criticisms and blame fewer people, and give working mothers and fathers some flexible office space. At the same time, working mothers call on society as a whole to be more tolerant of mothers as a group, to understand their workplace "breaks", and to give mothers more space and opportunities to return to the workplace.