Nowadays, many dual-employed parents are facing the problem of picking up and dropping off their children from school. For little kids, it is not practical to go to and from school on their own and kindergartens and primary schools finish school at 3 or 4 pm while parents are still working. Being full-time parents does solve this problem, but it can cause a great economic pressure on the family as well. For this reason, many Chinese parents rarely have a second child.

To make matters even tougher on moms, while employers will never outright admit it, many still prefer to hire men or women who have already had children since here, it’s common to find most of the household chores, children’s education, caring for the elderly being handled by the women in the families. To many employers, female employees are often in the situation of asking for leave or being absent for business trips.

Song Zhiping, a member of the national committee of CPPCC,  said in an interview with China Women’s News during the lastest Two Sessions that, suggested kindergartens and primary schools extend the school hour to around 6pm to facilitate dual-employed parents to pick up their children. It also reduces the expenses of after-school care classes and slows down the decline of fertility rate caused by economic pressure. “…The government should consider introducing more policies to solve the difficulty of female employment. Otherwise, the pressure put on enterprises will eventually lead to the reduction of female employment opportunities.”, said Song.

Song Zhiping, member of the national committee of CPPCC

Whether extending the school hour policy can be implemented depends on whether it is more of a pressure for schools or more of a help for parents. On the one hand, it can reduce the burden of parents. On the other hand, the extra hours increased workload for teachers, so it is mutually beneficial to suggest schools use these hours to develop activities according to the children’s interests.

In addition, she also put forward the extension of maternity leave, reduction of second-child kindergarten fees, and other maternity welfare proposals, which caused a strong reaction in the society.

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