With economic development, rising levels of female education, and increased employment opportunities, contemporary society has begun encouraging women to enter the workforce rather than remain solely in caregiving roles. However, China is currently in a period of value transition: women are encouraged to pursue careers, yet the cultural expectations surrounding gendered division of labour have not evolved accordingly.
For the older generation, marriage represented a pathway to “withdrawing from the labour market in exchange for security”—women provided domestic and childcare labour in return for men’s financial support and social protection (Yan, 2003). In contrast, the situation for today’s women is fundamentally different. They are expected not only to build a professional identity in the workplace, but also to take on the primary share of domestic responsibilities at home, including housework, elder care, childcare, and emotional labour.
American sociologist Arlie Hochschild, in her seminal work The Second Shift, introduced the concept of the “second shift” to describe the widespread phenomenon in which women, after completing a full day of paid work, return home to perform unpaid domestic labour (Hochschild and Machung, 1989). This concept is highly applicable to the experiences of contemporary Chinese women: after work, they continue with a “second shift” of household duties, while men’s participation in childcare and housework remains limited.
Research further shows that despite women’s increased educational attainment and economic independence, the unequal gendered division of labour within the institution of marriage has not fundamentally changed. Leta Hong Fincher (2014) notes that Chinese women often take on a disproportionately large share of housework and caregiving responsibilities after marriage, meaning that marriage no longer functions as a “safe haven” for women but, instead, becomes a structure that intensifies their burdens. As a result, women’s expectations and willingness to enter marriage have significantly declined.
Consequently, more women today recognise that marriage no longer offers the clear benefits and security it once did for previous generations. Rather, it often entails constrained career development, reduced personal time, and increased emotional and caregiving labour. It is not that women reject intimate relationships; they are rejecting a system that adds responsibility without offering reciprocal support.
References
Fincher, L.H. (2014) Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China. London: Zed Books.
Hochschild, A.R. and Machung, A. (1989) The Second Shift. New York: Viking.
Yan, Y. (2003) Private Life under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949–1999. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
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