TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Sarah Gao had a busy job. As head of an investment fund of 500 million yuan ($ 76.8 million), she has constantly flown on business trips across China. Then she found out she was pregnant.
Her pregnancy, with her then boyfriend, was unplanned. But Gao, who was 40, thought she would have no more chances, and decided to keep the baby. What she did not realize was how the decision would lead to a nearly four-year legal battle for her maternity benefits.
Her protracted struggle underscores the consequences 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 coverage before prenatal exams, because their status is in a legal gray area. Some may even be fined.
Gao and other single moms want to change that. They are part of a small group, organized by Advocates for Diverse Family Network, which petitioned the National People’s Congress’ Committee on Legal Affairs at its recent annual meeting. They do not expect immediate action, but they hope that their needs will be reflected in the legislative agenda in the future.
China’s population is rapidly aging, and the government is eager to promote higher birth rates, relaxing restrictive family planning laws in 2015 so that each family can have two children. Yet the laws have not changed so quickly with regard to single parents.
There are no official statistics on the number of single parent households in China, but a 2014 survey by the National Health Commission estimated that by 2020 there would be nearly 20 million single parents. Many of them come from a divorce, with a divorce rate in the country. according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, it has almost doubled from 2009 to 2018.
After a difficult pregnancy, Gao gave birth to her daughter in November 2016. After seven months of sick leave and maternity leave, she returned to work. During her sick leave, her company, KunYuan Asset Management, paid her the minimum: about 1,000 yuan ($ 153) per month, a sharp drop from her regular monthly salary of 30,000 yuan ($ 4,606). The company did not pay her during maternity leave.
Gao has insisted the company on full salary and maternity leave benefits, part of which comes from the social insurance to which companies contribute by law.
In Beijing, where Gao lives, an employee can only apply for the public benefits through the company. But Gao’s company refused to apply for her, saying her material was incomplete because she did not have a marriage license.
When she enforced the issue, the company asked her to resign. Gao initially refused to stop, but eventually she was fired. However, the company refused to issue her 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 phone calls to headquarters in Beijing went unanswered.
Gao is suing the company for 1 million yuan ($ 153,645) in repayment, in addition to her maternity leave payment. She has lost twice in court since July 2017 and is appealing for the third time.
The court repeatedly said that “Gao’s unmarried status at the time of childbirth is not in line with national policy, and therefore it is not the legal basis for her to receive a salary during maternity leave.”
China’s family planning policy does not explicitly prohibit unmarried women from having children, but states that ‘the state encourages a husband and wife to have two children’.
At the local level, it is interpreted that it can only have a married couple. It becomes a stumbling block when trying to access benefits such as compensation for antenatal visits and salary during maternity leave.
Many local governments need a marriage permit during this process, said Dong Xiaoying, founder of Advocates for Diverse Family Network.
There were some changes. In Guangdong Province and Shanghai, governments have changed the regulations so that a woman does not have to provide proof of marriage before she gets benefits.
In January, Shanghai quietly implemented a new regulation that removed the need for a marriage permit to claim benefits, which helped women like Zou Xiaoqi, a single mother who became activists in Shanghai. Zou sued a Shanghai government agency in 2017 to get her maternity leave salary and the benefits for public insurance. After years of media interviews, court appearances and political politicians in the city, Zou received her benefits earlier this month.
The laws need to change, Zou believes, as the cultural stigma is still very intense. Recently, she found out that the mother of her son’s playmate was also a single mother. They knew each other for five months before the woman revealed the details.
“The direct impact of this is that some single mothers are already facing major problems, which fall into more difficult positions,” Zou said. ‘The indirect impact is that some people are afraid to speak up and that some people are afraid to face society and that they are greatly oppressed. People who do not want to get married eventually get married and enter into an unhappy marriage. ‘
Single mothers and activists hope that a change at national level can ease the situation for single mothers in the rest of the country, such as Gao. A delegate in Guangdong at the National People’s Congress said in February that the Family Planning Act may need some explanations to address the needs of single mothers, in recognition of their legal problem.
“I just want to know in national politics that as a single parent, as an unmarried woman, I have the right to give birth?” Gao said.