TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Sarah Gao had a busy job. As the head of an investment fund of 500 million yuan ($ 76.8 million), she constantly flew to China on business trips. Then she found out she was pregnant.
Her pregnancy, along with her then-boyfriend, was unplanned. But Gao, 40, thought he would have no chance and decided to keep the baby. What she didn’t realize was how this decision would lead to a nearly four-year legal battle for her maternity benefits.
Her prolonged struggle highlights the consequences that Chinese women face when raising a child out of wedlock. The vast majority cannot access public benefits, from paid maternity leave to coverage for the prenatal examination, because their status is in a legal gray area. Some may even face fines.
Gao and other single mothers want to change that. They are part of a small group organized by the Advocates for Diverse Family Network, which has petitioned the Committee on Legal Affairs of the National People’s Congress at its recently concluded annual meeting. They do not expect immediate action, but hope that their needs will be reflected in the legislative agenda in the future.
China’s population is aging rapidly, and the government is keen 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 as quickly as for single parents.
There are no official statistics on the number of single-parent households in China, but a 2014 National Health Commission survey estimated that there would be nearly 20 million single mothers by 2020. Many of them come from divorce, 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 of sick leave and maternity leave. During her sick leave, her company, KunYuan Asset Management, paid her the minimum: about 1,000 yuan ($ 153) a month, a huge drop from her regular monthly salary of 30,000 yuan ($ 4,606). The company did not pay her during maternity leave.
Gao asked the company to get full salaries and maternity leave benefits, some of which would come from social security to which companies contribute by law.
In Beijing, where Gao lives, an employee can claim these public benefits only through their company. But Gao’s company refused to ask for it, saying its materials were incomplete because it did not have a marriage license.
When he forced the matter, the company asked him to resign. Gao refused to give up at first, but was eventually 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 comments via email, and phone calls to Beijing headquarters went unanswered.
Gao is suing the company for 1 million yuan ($ 153,645) in back payment, 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 status at birth is not in line with national policy and therefore had no 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 says that “the state encourages husband and wife to have two children.”
Locally, this has been interpreted as meaning that only a married couple can have children. This becomes an obstacle when trying to access benefits such as reimbursement of prenatal visits and pay during pregnancy leave.
Many local governments require a marriage permit during this process, said Dong Xiaoying, founder of the Diverse Family Lawyers Network.
There have been some changes. In Guangdong and Shanghai, governments have changed regulations so that a woman does not have to present proof of marriage before receiving benefits.
In January, Shanghai quietly implemented a new regulation that eliminated the need for a marriage permit 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 pay and public insurance benefits. After years of media interviews, court appearances and lobbying for politicians in the city, Zou received her benefits earlier this month.
Zou believes that the laws need to change, because the cultural stigma is still very intense. It was only recently that she learned that the mother of her son’s playmate was also a single mother. They had known each other for five months before the woman revealed that detail.
“Its direct impact is that there are some single mothers who are already facing great difficulties who fall into more difficult positions,” Zou said. “The indirect impact is that some people are afraid to talk, and some are afraid to face society and will face a lot of suppression. People who do not want to get married end up getting married and enter into an unhappy marriage. ”
Single mothers and activists hope that a change at the national level can smooth the situation for single mothers in the rest of the country, such as Gao. A delegate from Guangdong 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, acknowledging their legal dilemma.
“I just want to know in national politics, as a single parent, as an unmarried woman, do I have the right to give birth?” Gao said.