Balancing Act: Can ‘Mom Jobs’ Help China’s Women Have It All?
ZHEJIANG, East China — After more than a year as a stay-at-home mom, Shi Bingbing was itching to get back to work, so she found a job at a small coffee shop — a stark change from the high-pressure sales position she used to have at the Chinese tech giant Alibaba. Although the salary is lower, the location and hours are perfect.
Instead of long commutes and late nights, the 36-year-old now drives just 30 minutes to work and is home by 5 p.m. every night, allowing her to enjoy dinner with her family.
Her role is the kind of “mom job” that local governments across China have been promoting in recent years, specifically targeting mothers of preteen children. Such jobs offer more flexible working hours and a relaxed management style, allowing women to balance their career aspirations with parental duties.
Shi, who lives in Hangzhou, capital of the eastern Zhejiang province, quit working full time to look after her daughter in mid-2020. However, the irregular sleep and meal patterns soon left her craving a more structured routine, so she began looking for part-time opportunities. She eventually connected with the owner of Somehot Coffee, who offered Shi a management position with a flexible, tailormade schedule that left her evenings and weekends free for childcare.
“My boss is also a mother, so she fully understands the unique demands of a ‘mom job.’ If something comes up, it’s easy to arrange time off. Communication is smooth, and the schedule is really flexible,” Shi told Sixth Tone.
A 2023 study by the All-China Women’s Federation found that 82.7% of stay-at-home mothers have a desire to re-enter the workforce, with 48.3% interested in part-time or flexible employment opportunities.
However, while authorities and companies are trying to provide opportunities, those currently on offer are mostly low-skilled positions in domestic services, security, and catering, which are likely unattractive to women like Shi who previously held white-collar jobs or even senior management positions.
During this year’s sessions of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, and the top-level Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, several officials offered suggestions on how to make job positions and working conditions more suitable to mothers with young children, igniting debate on social media. While many netizens voiced their support for “mom jobs,” some raised concerns about potential increases in enterprise labor costs and the risk of deepening discrimination against women in the workplace.
Policy push
The concept of “mom jobs” was formally promoted in 2022 in the Guidelines on Implementing Measures to Support Active Childbearing, a national directive issued by the National Health Commission and 16 other government departments. The policy encourages employers to adapt to operational needs by negotiating with employees to implement flexible work models, such as staggered working hours or remote work, to accommodate parents who need to pick up or drop off children from school, care for a sick child, or manage other parenting responsibilities.
In the wake of the directive, cities and provinces across China have rolled out policies to incentivize businesses to offer “mom jobs,” leveraging tools like social security subsidies, job grants, and tax breaks.
Zhongshan, in the southern Guangdong province, was the first to introduce a citywide model coupling job creation with tax incentives and training programs. In fact, one local manufacturing company, Rich Sound Research, was ahead of the curve, launching a pilot program in 2019 offering flexible hours and “family leave” for employees on its production lines. As of last year, about 30% of its workforce were working mothers.
Yet, a closer look at the listings for “mom jobs” nationwide reveals that the roles are largely limited to manual labor, sales, cleaning, and property management, with scant opportunities in technical or managerial fields, while many offer only contract-based employment and hourly pay, which can mean lower job security.
Despite the reported interest from mothers looking for work, companies are also facing recruitment challenges. A manager at a domestic services company in Qingdao, in the eastern Shandong province, told Sixth Tone that most applicants are young and lack cooking or housekeeping skills, “and those who do have those skills don’t have suitable schedules, so it’s making it hard for us to find the right fit.”
For women who previously held white-collar or leadership roles, the transition to domestic service could also be a tough pill to swallow.
Before spending time as a stay-at-home mom, Yao Niang was a high-flying sales associate. Today, the 41-year-old earns 4,000 yuan ($550) a month chopping vegetables in the kitchen of a public school in the southern city of Zhuhai. On the plus side, she works from 5:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and has weekends off, which is ideal for childcare. “Pride isn’t important now,” she says. “What matters most is supporting my family.”
Sixth Tone conducted interviews at 10 companies across China that have recently introduced “mom jobs.” The roles were in the service and light industry sectors, such as housekeeping, childcare, eldercare, and sewing, and managers all highlighted the flexible working conditions as a key feature of the positions.
Yet, aside from the emphasis on flexibility, companies insist they still maintain specific requirements for candidates. For instance, the manager at a consulting firm in Shandong says the company prefers applicants under 45 with sales experience, while at Somehot Coffee they are seeking “smart, capable mothers who are willing to embrace change and keep pace with evolving trends” to work as managers and baristas.
Care in the community
Since the Tongxin Children’s Development Center was founded in Hangzhou last year, Liu Li, its director, has dedicated much of her energy to providing flexible employment opportunities to help skilled mothers re-enter the workforce.
Tongxin, which has two locations focusing on early years education and services for children and adolescents, offers a range of “mom jobs” encompassing full-time teaching roles, part-time teaching assistant positions, and temporary assignments based on course requirements. Its diverse professional staff now includes bilingual teachers and individuals with extensive childcare experience, with job placements customized to match an employee’s experience and availability.
The salaries are modest, with part-time workers earning about 4,000 yuan a month, yet Liu stresses the intrinsic value and sense of belonging that mothers derive from their roles at the center.
“Many moms had rich work experience before having children but had to pause their careers for childcare. We hope these positions offer them a chance to reintegrate into society,” says Liu, adding that all her staff receive on-the-job training, allowing them to explore different areas based on their interests and abilities, while those with pedagogical acumen are empowered to design and deliver courses.
Tongxin also serves as a community-building platform, hosting regular gatherings, lectures, and salons to facilitate skills enhancement and social networking opportunities for mothers.
“Some mothers leave us due to mismatched schedules or skills, but those who stay find real value in their work,” says Liu, who hopes to expand the Tongxin model to more communities throughout Hangzhou, helping more mothers achieve flexible employment.
She argues that stay-at-home moms are often not driven to return to work by financial pressures, but rather by the overwhelming demands of childcare. “‘Mom jobs’ not only provide employment opportunities but also create a supportive, collaborative platform for mothers,” she adds. “We hope this model helps more women find a balance between work and family.”
Wang Ying joined Tongxin in March last year. She works full time designing and teaching parent-child courses, a job that allows her to finish before 6 p.m. every day and requires her to commute less than 1 kilometer from her home.
Before taking a three-year career break upon the birth of her son in 2014, Wang enjoyed a diverse career working in foreign trade, in operations at a major internet company, and she ran her own e-commerce business. She eventually returned to the workforce with a job at another early education center in Hangzhou, where she stayed for nearly six years until the business closed down.
“It is challenging,” says Wang, explaining that over the years she’s come across many stay-at-home mothers who are considering re-entering the workforce but are concerned about whether they will be able to balance a job and family, or whether they would still bring value to a business. “You have to overcome that mental hurdle. And if you’re entering an unfamiliar environment with high expectations and limited time, it’s even harder.”
Wang hopes that more education centers like Tongxin can help other communities — partially so that more mothers can step in to help ease her work pressure. “The workload has taken a toll on my health. I had to take a month off last year due to back pain,” she adds.
Unintended consequences
While many people have lauded the implementation of “mom jobs” as a positive step toward empowering working women, some experts have raised concern over potential spillover effects.
“The original goal was to reduce women’s domestic burdens, but these positions risk trapping them in dual roles as earners and caregivers,” cautions Du Shichao, an assistant professor of sociology at Shanghai’s Fudan University, adding that the government’s encouragement — rather than mandate — of these positions makes it challenging to assess their overall impact.
He cites the “motherhood penalty,” where employers assume female employees with children won’t fully commit to work due to family responsibilities, leading to lower evaluations. However, “having ‘mom jobs’ is better than nothing,” Du says. “At least they provide women with access to the job market.”
The situation is perhaps better in households with multiple generations, as parents can share childcare responsibilities with grandparents. Yet, with the retirement age set to rise over the next 15 years — from 60 to 63 for men, and from 55 to 58 for female cadres and 50 to 55 for female blue-collar workers — this could increase the burden on older generations.
To truly stop family responsibilities from falling solely on the shoulders of women, Du believes that a cultural change is needed. “‘Mom jobs’ can be an option, but they shouldn’t be mandatory for all companies. Otherwise, these positions might become symbolic or tokenistic, leading to discrimination against those who fill them,” he says. “The ideal state of this policy is when societal attitudes shift, and every job can be a ‘mom job.’”
Additional reporting: Wen Ming; editor: Hao Qibao.
(Header image: Sinology/Getty Creative/VCG)
