A Chinese man has been ordered to pay his ex-wife 50,000 yuan (US$7,750) for years of unpaid housework, in a landmark divorce case that has sparked furious debate in China.
Under a new civil code that came into effect this year, divorcing spouses have the right to request compensation if they bore more responsibilities at home.
The wife, surnamed Wang, told the Beijing court that during five years of marriage she “looked after the child and managed household chores, while Chen [her husband] did not care about or participate in any other household affairs besides going to work.”
She filed a claim for extra compensation for housework and childcare duties, a Feb. 4 court statement showed.
The court ruled that Wang had indeed taken on more household responsibilities and should receive 50,000 yuan plus sole child custody, and an additional 2,000 yuan in alimony per month.
Feng Miao, the presiding judge, said that the division of property related to “tangible property,” of which it was impossible to include housework.
Housework “for example, can improve the ability of the other spouse to achieve personal, individual academic growth, and this is not reflected in the tangible property,” Feng said.
After local media reported this week that Wang had appealed — having originally requested 160,000 yuan in compensation — the ruling sparked widespread online debate over the value of women’s unpaid domestic work.
As of yesterday, the hashtag “stay-at-home wife receives 50,000 yuan housework compensation” had more than 570 million views on the microblogging platform Sina Weibo.
More than 427,000 people responded to an online poll by Chinese media outlet Pheonix Weekly, which asked if the compensation was right, wrong, too small, or too big. Almost 94 percent said it was right, but not enough, with commenters saying it underestimated the job of stay-at-home wives and mothers.
“Women should never be stay-at-home wives... When you divorce, you are left with nothing whatsoever. 50,000 yuan in housework compensation is bullshit,” one comment read.
“A full-time nanny could cost more than this for half a year, are women’s youth and feelings this cheap?” another read.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has estimated that Chinese women spend nearly four hours doing unpaid labor daily — 2.5 times that of men and higher than the average.
Marriage breakups have surged over the past two decades in China, as divorce laws were liberalized and women became more financially independent — to the concern of Beijing, which is trying to boost birthrates in an aging population.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
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