Chinese court forces a man to pay his ex-wife for the work during the marriage

At the end of February this year, went all around the world the news of the Chinese court's ruling that forced a man to pay compensation for the work his ex-wife has been doing during their marriage.

After the divorce, the woman, beside monthly money for the custody of the child, will receive 50,000 RMB for being housewife and caring for the baby for 5 years. 

At the same time, the judge denied the request made by the woman for a compensation of 160,000 RMB for the material and mental losses. The sentence generated lot of discussion on social media, especially because the amount of money the woman is getting is considered too low. The hashtag created for the discussion on Weibo has been viewed more than 610 million times, showing that the topic is quite hot now.

This is the first sentence of this kind after the introduction of the civil code in January, and basically it reflects the will of the new code to better protect the rights of individuals.

But we must say that this kind of compensation is not completely new: what’s new is the possibility to ask for it without having signed an agreement before the marriage.

According to the Article 1088 of the Civil Code, "Whereone of the spouses has more obligations such as raising children, caring for the elderly and assisting the other party in his/her work, the said spouse has the right to request for compensation upon divorce against the other party, and the other party shall make due compensation". 

Furthermore, “The specific measures shall be decided by agreement between the two parties; if the agreement is not reached, the people's court shall decide”.

The judge who ruled the cause declared that “The division of the joint property of husband and wife after marriage is mainly the division of the value of the existing tangible property. And domestic work may form an intangible property value”.

It should be noted that the role of house caring is worldwide typically hold by women: when it comes to marriage, in order to take care of the house and children they often give up their careers, or if they don’t have a job, they have more difficulties in finding one, especially if they have kids. And housework can be basically considered unpaid work.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 of World Economic Forum, there is no country where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women. In countries where the ratio is lowest, it is still 2:1.

It’s sad to say, but none of us will see the gender parity within our lifetime, nor will do our children or grandchildren: in terms of economic participation, the gender gap will take 257 years to close (compared to 202 years in the 2019 report). 

Globally, only 55% of women (aged 15-64) are engaged in the labor market as opposed to 78% of men. There are 72 countries where women are barred from opening bank accounts or obtaining credit. Political empowerment scores are poor: in the past 50 years, 85 states have had no female head of state.

Even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” we still are far from the goal: Forbes, in its World’s 100 most powerful person list, ranks a total of 6 women.

We must say that the Chinese government supports the principle of non discrimination, where men and women are equal under the Chinese national laws. 

China’s Constitution states in Article 48, “Women in the People’s Republic of China enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of life, in political, economic, cultural, social and family life”. It adds, “The State protects the rights and interests of women”. 

Likewise, the Law of People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women underscores the equal rights of men and women, and also mentions at the end of Article 2, “Discriminating against, maltreating, abandoning and physically abusing women are prohibited”.

Commenting the decision, Lanny Lee from HFG says it can be illustrated from three aspects:

However, the civil code does not specify the calculation method of above-mentioned compensation. It’s basically up do the judge to decide the amount of the compensation, which in this case is mainly due to the following factors:

• the time when the two parties live together after marriage;
• the specific pay of the woman in domestic work;
• the personal financial income of the man;
• the general standard of living in the area.

The Beijing court's ruling, if not towards gender equality, goes at least in the direction of recognition of women's work, often underestimated or unseen, and the strengthening of the role of women within the family, which is the mirror of the society: a first step towards the progress of the social legal system and the society’s recognition of women’s status in China.