It’s 7 pm and time for Zhang Yali to cook dinner for her family, not only for her daughter and her husband but also for her parents-in-law. However, she hasn’t finished tutoring her 15-year-old daughter’s English assignment. Thus, a picture appeared in the medium-sized kitchen in Shenzhen: Zhang was cutting onions while her daughter was standing beside her, asking her questions about her assignments.
‘‘Sometimes I feel like I’m a superwoman,’’ Zhang said.
Zhang Yali said she does all of the housework in her family, including tidying up the living room here where the family usually eats dinner. (Source: Zhang Yali)
When household duties increase, it’s more often the woman who quits her job to take care of children and elderly parents.
It’s 7pm and time for Zhang Yali to cook dinner for her family, not only for her daughter and her husband but also for her parents-in-law. However, she hasn’t finished tutoring her 15-year-old daughter’s English assignment. In the medium-sized kitchen in Shenzhen, Zhang was cutting onions while her daughter was standing beside her, asking her questions about her assignments.
‘‘Sometimes I feel like I’m a superwoman,’’ Zhang said.
During the pandemic, more women across mainland China and Hong Kong are quitting their jobs to pick up the household and childcare duties, while men continue to work, leading to mental stress, overwork and depression.
Zhang, 48, worked for human resources in a technology company in Shenzhen, and her husband, Wang Lidong, was an engineer. The couple also had their own online clothing and jewelry business.
But when the pandemic hit, Wang’s company started announcing layoffs and salary cuts. Although Wang said he was lucky to remain in his position, his salary cuts still hit the family hard. Their online business also stalled as the number of customers buying jewelry decreased a lot.
‘‘We lost nearly a third of our customers,’’ said Zhang.
They could no longer afford their housekeeper, who was taking care of Wang’s parents, who live with the couple, and their 15-year-old daughter. Zhang quit her job at the tech company to be a full-time caregiver a year ago.
Then Zhang’s father was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer and his three operations increased their financial burden. He lives in Sichuan Province, and Zhang could not leave Shenzhen to see him because of the pandemic lockdown.
Zhang was under tremendous mental pressure. She cried every time she received a video call from her brother and her father in the hospital.
“It’s really a tough time for us,” she said. ‘‘I felt powerless.’’
When the lockdown finally ended, Zhang still couldn’t leave Shenzhen as she is the only caregiver in her family.
Zhang, who used to teach English, said she is the one who always helps her daughter with her online courses, which started in February last year, and tutors her after class. She also does all the housework.
‘‘When there are face-to-face classes, students can ask questions after class but now they can only ask teachers by email and it usually takes a long time to wait for their reply. So now I’m the one who always answers my daughter’s questions,’’ Zhang said.
Zhang said most of the teachers just uploaded the lecture notes on their school platforms instead of launching a meeting online. She said she needed to supervise her daughter to read those notes.
‘‘I feel devastated and exhausted sometimes when I need to handle a lot of things at one time,’’ Zhang said.
Zhang said her marriage is strained. Since the pay cut, Zhang was often in a bad mood, she said. Zhang said she always feels desperate after a long, tiring day.
‘‘Every day when I talked to him, he gave me a cold face,’’ Zhang said. ‘‘Sometimes I thought about divorce.”
Zhang started looking for a new job last November, but the interview process is tough, she said. She has been rejected several times. A lot of companies are laying off workers, so Zhang is still searching but doesn’t expect to find a well-paid one.
Chan Liling, 35, used to wait tables at a small restaurant in Hong Kong. The restaurant is around 20 square meters in Shek Mun. But when the pandemic hit, she quit her job to take care of her 7-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter. Her husband has no time to care for children because of busy work. As a result of that, Liling becomes the ‘sacrificer’ of the house.
Chan said she often needs to separate her two children and let one of them stay in the living room here to avoid argument. (Source: Chan Liling)
‘‘There are too many trivial things at home such as buying food, cooking as well as teaching children homework. I have run myself into the ground,’’ Chan said.
Multitasking is difficult, Chan said. She said she needs to take her two children everywhere she goes, such as the supermarket, with her when her husband is at work.
‘‘I don’t want to leave them two alone at home. But when I bring them out, I need to take good care of them in case they’re lost. It’s stressful,’’ Chan said.
Her childrens’ online learning is expensive, Chan said. She had to buy her children iPads and laptops so they could study at home.
Chan said her mental stress has seriously increased. ‘‘I have no sense of security when I don’t have a job. It made me feel lost,’’ Chan said.
Chan describes herself as enthusiastic and optimistic. She has worked in
mainland China and Hong Kong. She said she likes experiencing different things and enjoys every work she's ever had.
‘‘Being a housewife is just not my thing,’’ Chan said. ‘‘I‘ve got more mood swings during the pandemic and the arguments with my husband also increased,’’ Chan said, adding that her husband works overtime more frequently after the pandemic. She said she gets angry much easier than before.
Chan also said the fighting between her two children has increased and the pandemic has discouraged them from making friends.
‘‘They were supposed to be at school and play with their classmates, but now they cannot,’’ said Chan, adding that sometimes she has to separate them into two different rooms so that they won’t argue or fight with each other.
In 2018, women in China spent an average of 3 hours and 48 minutes a day on unpaid work, including housework and caring for children, while men spent 1 hour and 32 minutes, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. This has increased significantly under the pandemic.
Besides, the majority of women from low-income households reported an increase in household work during the pandemic, according to survey done by the Shanghai online newspaper, The Paper.
The survey polled nearly 700 women across the country with a monthly income of less than 5,000 yuan ($HK 5978). A considerable proportion of the respondents are engaged in the service industry (37.6%) or are full-time housewives (20.1%). Respondents are mainly young and middle-aged women, with 51.7% aged 18-35, and 39.3% aged 36-50. Most of the respondents were married women (69%), and unmarried and single women accounted for 25.4%. Respondents covered 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country. The Paper received 662 responses.
“Life has become obviously hectic,'' one respondent told The Paper, saying that she spends a lot of time and energy tutoring children. She said she has to do all kinds of housework and work herself every day. She feels exhausted.
Data from The Paper
A quarter of women say their family relationships have gotten worse during the pandemic.
Over half of the women say their caregiving duties have increased.
More than double the number of women shop for the household than men.
87% of women say the time they spend cleaning has increased, some significantly.
Scroll for more
Overwork and stress is causing many women to feel depressed
Under the pandemic, increased household duties have mainly fallen on women, but many women have kept their jobs despite the increased workload. The dual pressure of family and work is pushing many women off the edge.
Xiao Hong Yuan, 42, who lives in Guangzhou said during the pandemic, her mental stress increased because of a lot of uncertainties. The pandemic has decreased their income and her husband is now the main breadwinner of the family.
‘‘I feel extremely anxious every time he says he might lose his job,’’ Xiao said, adding that she has gone through a mood roller coaster.
Xiao said she has to clean up the big living room every day by herself without her husband's help. (Source: Xiao Hong Yuan)
Xiao and her husband have two children, one 9-year-old boy and one 15-year-old girl. Xiao also owns a small children’s education art centre. Xiao said before the pandemic, the centre was run jointly with her husband, but now it’s only her that manages the whole centre.
‘‘We switched to online teaching mode shortly after the pandemic started. Our staff taught children drawing and painting online.,’ Xiao said, adding that it was not easy.
Working from home increased her stress and her workload increased, because there were always several Zoom breakout rooms at the same time and she needed to supervise every room.
‘‘I feel depressed sometimes,’’ Xiao said, adding that she used to work eight hours a day but now she has to work more than 10 hours every day. Xiao’s husband has to work overtime ever since their company has implemented layoffs. Her husband used to be responsible for settling accounts every day but now Xiao does it.
Xiao also shoulders all the household duties, she said. In order to cut down expenditures, they dismissed their housekeeper around one year ago and Xiao cooks three meals a day for her two children.
‘‘It drives me crazy. I don’t even have a moment’s rest,’’ said Xiao. She also said her husband rarely helps her with housework, even if he comes home earlier.
‘‘He thought it was my job to take care of all the housework,’’ Xiao said. Sometimes she said her husband scolds her if he thinks something wasn’t done correctly.
‘‘I cry every time he scolds me,’’ said Xiao.
Multitasking is the most challenging thing for Tam after the pandemic. When she works from home, she always has to prepare food and launch the meeting at the same time. ‘‘I always listen to the recording lectures when I am cooking soup, said Tam. The professional work and domestic work are overlapped, which increased her mental burden.
‘’When I’m in the middle meeting, I might be thinking about what I’m going to cook for the next meal, which makes me unable to concentrate,' said Tam.
Tam mainly takes responsibility for all the housework, but she said she also specifically requires her husband to coordinate with her. For example, she often asks her husband to prepare something for the other day’s meals.
‘‘To be honest, the execution is balanced, but the mental burden still drops on me,’’ said Tam.
TAM Dic Sze, Daisy who teaches in HKBU is living with her husband. She has no child. Although she is not a ‘‘working mother’’, she still feels stressed when pandemic hits as household duties and working tasks always fall on her at the same time.
''Due to the change of the working environment, I spent more time staying at home. The boundary between domestic work and professional work becomes blurred,’’ Tam said.
Tam said before the pandemic, women normally have to carry out a ''second shift'' at home once their work day had finished and the pandemic leads to a surge of workload.
''I think the pandemic has increased the time spent in private spaces (e.g. home). Even if the household has a domestic helper to help execute chores, the mental load and burden of organizing, provisioning, and juggling the requirements of the new normal would affect disproportionately the individual who manages our private spaces, and that is unfortunately still falls on the shoulders of women,''said Tam.
‘‘Even if I don't have a child, I feel exhausted sometimes,'' said Tam.
Tam also mentioned gender inequality situations appeared in her workplace. Some trivial things naturally fall on women because people always think of women as more responsive people. For example, compared with men, women are always assigned with some extra work such as calling meetings, hosting meetings, etc. Women take the role of host most because they are considered as having better organizational skills.
‘‘A lot of women dare not to say no, but men can,'’ said Tam.
Tam said women rarely say no to these unfair treatments, but if men are assigned with some extra work, they will always say no to the superior.
65.9 percent of women suffer financial pressure
The paper found that concerns about livelihood issues being affected by the pandemic is another major source of anxiety and stress for women interviewees. 65.9% of the respondents said they suffer financial pressure due to rising prices and more than half of the respondents said they were worried about employment difficulties. Some interviewees told the paper the pressure they feel on their livelihoods:
''Depression, reduced financial resources..''
''All kinds of consumption. Very tired..''
Another interviewee told The paper that her husband has been unemployed for several months. Her husband is a taxi driver and the vehicle had a major accident in February. Due to the pandemic, it took more than three months before the car was repaired. They need to repay all kinds of loans and Huabei credit cards, which really makes their original life extremely difficult.
At the same time, the family care work that has been aggravated by the pandemic, from taking care of children and other family members to maintain family relationships and atmosphere, has also put a lot of pressure on grassroots women.
Women start to doubt the meaning of life
Some interviewees talked about the increase in housework they faced during the pandemic. For instance, cooking every day makes some of them start doubting the meaning of life. Some of them have to buy food and cook every day for hygiene and make meals for a family of five. Many of them feel exhausted to do everything by themselves.
Nearly 20 percent of women are under immense pressure
The survey also shows that 69.8% of the respondents believe the arrangement of purchasing food and oil and other daily necessities at home has raised their pressure, both physically and mentally. Nearly 20% of the respondents said they are under immense pressure.
24.3 percent of women felt stressed in maintaining family relationships
24.3% of the interviewees felt stressed in maintaining family relationships. Another interviewee told the paper that she suffered gender-based violence during the pandemic. The whole period of life under pandemic was misery for her and she was scolded and beaten. She said don’t want to live with male relatives or friends anymore.
As the main caregivers in the family, women not only undertake more daily household duties and care work during the pandemic but also undertake the procurement work related to pandemic prevention in the family. More than 60% of the interviewees said that the purchase of anti-epidemic supplies in their homes has led to a surge of pressure and anxiety. 16.8% of the interviewees believe that the pressure is mountanious.
Purchasing work has led to a surge of pressure on women
''A little anxious because of unemployment...''
''Family income is unstable, anxiety happens..''
Women are nearly three times as likely as men to report suffering from serious mental health effects (27% vs. 10%), such as anxiety, lack of apprehension, and depression, inability to sleep and difficulties performing daily activities, according to a recent study conducted by CARE, a non-profit international aid agency. Researchers discovered that almost no one is immune to the coronavirus pandemic's fear, concern, and general emotional exhaustion.
Besides, 39% of women in the United States said that their overall mental health has deteriorated under pandemic (31% of men), and 52% of women said their anxiety has increased (42% of men), according to a survey from Yahoo.
The pandemic also caused approximately 90% of women in the workplace to experience some various degrees of ‘‘ negative’’ emotional, psychological and physical symptoms, according to Xinhuanet. For example, nearly half of women in the workplace said that they were irritable, anxious, or upset or scared in the last three months; about 40% of women in the workplace felt that they were weak, tired, or depressed. In addition, more than one-third of working women suffer from headaches, neck pain, and back pain.
Women have 2.5 times the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder in major incidents than men. Besides, they do not leave the house to take care of children during the anti-pandemic period, which leads to the increasing housework. They also worry about the safety and mental stability of their children as well as other family members who are stuck at home, which will inevitably lead to exhaustion, insomnia and anxiety.
Recently, China has accelerated the resumption of work. Since the school has not yet resumed, women with children face the dilemma of taking care of their children and returning to work. This group of women are called ‘‘working mothers.’’ As of early March, the national work resumption rate was 77%, and the overall work load resumption rate was 58% of the same period last year.
The study found that the workload of women with young children under 18 years old is obviously insufficient. In particular, “working mothers'' have a low probability of returning to work and more ‘‘working mothers’’ choose to work more at home. Mothers who weigh between work and their children are under the most pressure, whose mental health is also the worst.
In addition, the gathering policy of the pandemic and school suspension arrangements have increased the unpaid housework of women caregivers. A survey conducted by the Hong Kong Women’s Center Association on the use of time found that after the outbreak, the number of female respondents who needed to take care of their families for more than 10 hours increased significantly to 65%.
Women are more anxious than non-caregivers during the pandemic because they have to shoulder the responsibilities of purchasing anti-epidemic supplies, cleaning their homes, and caring for their families.
Scroll for more
Women are losing their jobs more easily than men and family conflicts increase
During the pandemic, women are considered as the ones who need to take the responsibility of childcare, which causes more women to lose their jobs or suffer reduced working hours. Besides, family members were forced to get along day and night, which also caused unexpected rifts in some families.
''The increasing quarrels with my family members bring a lot of pressure on me,'' said Wu.
Wu Jian Xia, 45, works in a medical device company in Shenzhen. Because of campus closures, her 16-year-old daughter took online courses at home for over a year before she studied abroad in the UK.
Wu said sometimes she wants to watch televisiom in living room here but her husband asks her to turn off. (Source: Wu Jian Xia)
‘‘Pandemic sucks. I miss my daughter now, though we had a lot of fights before she went abroad,’’ said Wu.
Wu said that during the period when her daughter was taking online courses at home, they had a lot of quarrels. ‘‘We were cooped up with each other for so long time, which led to the increasing fights.’’
She says sometimes she felt depressed and had a huge emotional roller coaster as she was not used to working from home. Her daughter, Zhang Chao Ran also felt fretful when the internet connection was not good.
Wu put the blame on the lockdown policy. She said before the pandemic, she seldom argued with her husband. However, the quarrels between her and her husband also increased a lot when they had to face each other for more than eight hours every day.
‘‘I think couples also need some private space,’’ said Wu, adding that there were too many trivial things at home that can put them off the eage such as who washed the dishes, who used the bathroom first, etc.
Wu also mentioned that it is always her job to supervise her daughter's study instead of her husband. ''He always takes it for granted. I argued with him several times about it,'' said Wu.
In addition, Wu said the relationship between her and her daughter was also not as good as before. ‘‘She lost her temper more often than before and I also scolded her more,’’ said Wu, adding that the increasing time of staying at home puts extra pressure on relationships and can lead to more dissatisfaction and disagreements with partners and children.
Wu said this was not what she wanted. She said her daughter was in her adolescence so it’s better for her to stay with her peers instead of her parents. Apart from that, her daughter was very nervous about her study so sometimes the technical problems drove her crazy.
'' The increasing quarrels with my family members bring a lot of pressure on me,'' said Wu.
He, who doesn’t want to reveal her first name , a 38-year-old woman who worked in a human resources department in Shenzhen got fired during the period when Wuhan was in lockdown. He has four kids.
He said quarrels are everywhere iafter the pandemic, even in the living room here whey they usually have dinner. (Source: He)
He said she was laid off because the company needed to reduce workers and think her family burden was huge. The company has the idea that women need to do childcare jobs.
‘‘Obviously, more women were fired compared with men in our company,’’ said He, adding that most of the women being laid off were the ‘‘working mothers’’ like her.
He said she had tried to convince her superior in order to keep her position but got refused by the company.
He was very frustrated and angry at that time because she thought it was unfair. She also felt more stressed because they have four children and one of their family’s economic sources was cut down.
‘‘Equipment is a big problem for us,’’ said He. He said she has to buy four ipads, four laptops for her children, which largely increased their financial burden. Also, the four kids cannot take online classes at the same time because they may disturb one another. However, there are not enough places in He’s house so the children always fight with each other.
‘‘I feel that I’m not a qualified mother,’’ said He, adding that she always cried at night when she thought there was no way to improve their situation.
He’s husband works as an engineer and after He got fired, her husband has to work overtime nearly every day to ensure the sufficiency of their family income.
‘‘It was really a hard time for us. We even have to borrow money from our friends, which is the last thing we want to do,’’ said He.
The huge financial burden also led to growing family quarrels and even made He think of divorce.
‘‘I sometimes struggled to get divorced with my husband,’’ said He. He said her husband was under a lot of pressure as well. They always released all their negative feelings at night, which led to endless quarrels. He said she got tired of those constant fights and had considered getting divorced.
Increasing divorce rate
The total number of divorces in Shenzhen over the years generally does not exceed one-third of the total number of marriages in the same period, however, by April in 2020, the total number of divorces in Shenzhen reached 84% of the total number of marriages, according to statistics from the Southern Metropolis Daily.
At the same time, the marriage reservation system of the Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau has been booked for divorce as of June 16, and the remaining number is 0, reported by Global times.
In 2020, the number of newborns in China was 10.035 million, which is the lowest level since 1949. 8.131 million marriages were registered nationwide, a decrease of 12.2% from the previous year. The number of divorce registrations soared from 580,000 in 1987 to 3.73 million in 2020.
In the last three months of 2020, on the eve of the divorce "cooling-off period", there were more than one million divorce applications in China, showing an increase of 13% over the same period last year, according to a recent report in the US "New York Times.''
Increased divorce consultation cases
Kenneth, the head of Smith & Co., a divorce consultant, said that the number of divorces in Hong Kong is about 20,000 each year. Three main factors for divorce of Hong Kong people include extramarital affairs, financial problems and children’s upbringing. The company has received tons of divorce consultations recently. Among all the cases, the divorce consultation caused by economic problems such as unemployment due to the worsening of the local economy caused by the pandemic has increased by 20% compared with the past.
Women's average salary is lower than men's
Apart from that, women always get lower salaries compared with men, which is a manifestation of unfair treatment towards women in the workplace. Among the 30 jobs with the lowest average salary in the United States, 23 are dominated by women and the average salary of all women in the workplace is 15% lower than that of men, according to the Atlantic report. Even when the proportion of women in one type of work becomes higher, the average salary for this type of work decreases.
Female is usually the 'sacrificer' of family
A report in Atlantic said bluntly: “COVID-19 is a disaster of feminism.” Whether it is caring for sick elders or children who cannot go to school during the pandemic, many families now often have to sacrifice one person’s working hours - and in reality, it is the lower-paid person who is naturally sacrificed, which is usually the female.
The pandemic has also disrupted the existing rhythm of society and has made the situation worse for women who are already relatively insecure in their jobs. Even though the United States has been calling for gender equality for many years, statistics have found that 60% of the responsibility for parenting still falls on women. In addition, three-quarters of single-parent families in the United States are women. Women’s unemployment rate is also greater than men’s. (the unemployment rate for women increases by 0.9%, and for men it increases by 0.7%).
Women suffer reduced working hours
After the outbreak of COVID-19, the global unemployment rate rose sharply and rapidly in the first quarter of 2020 in China. Even for those who were not fired, many of them faced the dilemma of reduced wages due to reduced working hours. The global working hours fell by 14% in the second quarter of 2020, which is equivalent to 400 million full-time jobs working 48 hours per week and women are more affected than men, according to the Fifth Edition of ILO Surveillance: New Crown Epidemic and Employment, released in early July of 2020.
Among the 774 women respondents, 205 were unemployed, 85% of which lost their job due to the pandemic, according to a survey on women’s employment during the pandemic period published by the women’s organization ‘‘Hong Kong Good Alliance''. Middle-aged women and elderly women were affected by difficulties in job transition. Another 55% of the women interviewed were forced to take unpaid leave or reduce their working hours due to the pandemic, which greatly reduced their income.
The organization conducted a questionnaire survey in April 2020 for the purpose of understanding the impact of the pandemic on women’s employment, income and mood, and withdrew 774 valid questionnaires. Most of them were affected by the pandemic, resulting in reduced incomes and even unemployment. The majority were women aged 45 to 64. In addition to the impact on livelihoods, the pandemic has also affected women’s emotions. Nearly 10% of people experienced loss of appetite and crying for no reason, and 9 of them even had suicidal thoughts due to unemployment and other reasons.
The paper also did a survey about the income of women under pandemic. The survey shows that the decrease in income and the increase in expenditure are the main impacts on the livelihood of most grassroots women. 70.7% of the interviewees said that their family income has decreased due to the pandemic, and another 45.9% of the interviewees' own income has been affected.
At the same time, nearly 60% of respondents indicated that household expenditures have increased due to the epidemic. Plus, the interviewees mentioned that the increase in consumption of living and anti-epidemic materials and the increase in prices are the main reasons for the increase in expenditure. In addition, some interviewees mentioned that due to school suspension, living at home for children living in school has also increased the family's basic daily expenses.