TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Sarah Gao had a hectic job. As head of a 500 million yuan (US $ 76.8 million) investment fund, she was constantly traveling in China on business trips. Then she found out she was pregnant.
Her pregnancy, with her then boyfriend, was not planned. But Gao, 40, thought she would have no more chances and decided to keep the baby. What she didn’t realize was how that decision would lead to a nearly four-year legal battle over her maternity benefits.
Their protracted struggle highlights the consequences that Chinese women face when raising a child out of wedlock. The vast majority do not have access to public benefits, ranging from paid maternity leave to prenatal examination coverage, because their situation is in a legal gray area. Some may even face fines.
Gao and a few other single mothers want to change that. They are part of a small group, organized by Advocates for Diverse Family Network, which submitted a petition to the Legal Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress at its recently concluded annual meeting. They do not expect immediate action, but they do hope that their needs will be reflected on the legislative agenda in the future.
China’s population is aging rapidly and the government is eager to promote higher birth rates by relaxing restrictive family planning laws in 2015 so that each family can have two children. However, the laws have not changed so quickly with regard to single parents.
There are no official statistics on the number of single-parent families in China, but a survey by the National Health Commission in 2014 estimated that there would be almost 20 million single mothers in 2020. Many of them come from divorces, with divorce rates in the country almost doubling from 2009 to 2018, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
After a difficult pregnancy, Gao gave birth to her daughter in November 2016. She returned to work after seven months on sick leave and maternity leave. During her sick leave, her company, KunYuan Asset Management, paid her the minimum necessary: about 1,000 yuan ($ 153) per month, a big drop from her usual monthly salary of 30,000 yuan ($ 4,606) . The company did not pay it during maternity leave.
Gao lobbied the company for full pay and maternity leave benefits, part of which would come from social insurance to which companies contribute by law.
In Beijing, where Gao lives, an employee can apply for these public benefits only through his company. But Gao’s company refused to apply for it, saying its materials were incomplete because it did not have a marriage license.
When she forced the issue, the company asked her to resign. Gao refused to give up at first, but eventually she was fired. However, the company refused to issue a formal letter acknowledging her departure, making it difficult for her to find a new job.
The company did not respond to requests for comment via e-mail and calls to the Beijing headquarters were not answered.
Gao is suing the company for 1 million yuan ($ 153,645) in return, in addition to paying maternity leave. She has lost twice in court since July 2017 and is appealing for the third time.
Each time, the court said that “Gao’s unmarried condition during childbirth is not in line with national policy and therefore lacks a legal basis for her to receive a salary during maternity leave.”
China’s family planning policy does not explicitly prohibit single women from having children, but says that “the state encourages a husband and wife to have two children”.
At the local level, this has been interpreted to mean that only a couple can have children. This becomes an obstacle when trying to access benefits, such as reimbursement for prenatal consultations and salary during pregnancy leave.
Many local governments require a marriage license during this process, said Dong Xiaoying, the founder of Advocates for Diverse Family Network.
There have been some changes. In Guangdong province and Shanghai, governments have changed regulations so that women do not have to provide proof of marriage before receiving benefits.
In January, Shanghai quietly implemented a new regulation that eliminated the need for a marriage license to apply for benefits, helping women like Zou Xiaoqi, a single mother who became an activist in Shanghai. Zou sued a Shanghai government agency in 2017 to obtain maternity leave wages and public insurance benefits. After years of media interviews, court appearances and lobbying city politicians, Zou received his benefits earlier this month.
Laws need to change, Zou believes, because cultural stigma is still very intense. Only recently did she discover that the mother of her son’s playmate was also single. They had known each other for five months before the woman revealed this detail.
“Its direct impact is that some single mothers already face great difficulties and fall into more difficult positions,” said Zou. “The indirect impact is that some people are afraid to speak, others are afraid to face society and will face a lot of repression. People who don’t want to get married end up getting married and entering an unhappy marriage. “
Single mothers and activists hope that a change at the national level can ease the situation of single mothers in the rest of the country, such as Gao. A Guangdong delegate to the National People’s Congress said in February that the family planning law may need some clarification to meet the needs of single mothers, recognizing their legal dilemma.
“I just want to know in national politics, as a single mother, as a single woman, do I have the right to give birth?” Said Gao.