A Chinese court has ordered a man to pay his former wife 50,000 yuan ($7,700, N2.9 million) as compensation for house chores she date during their five-year marriage.
The ruling comes on the basis of China’s introduction of a new civil code which seeks to better protect the rights of individuals. Here, spouses can seek compensation from their partners in a divorce if they have shouldered more responsibilities – including housework.
According to local media, the man simply identified by his surname Chen filed for divorce last year from his wife, surnamed Wang, at a district court in Beijing in October 2020 after getting married in 2015.
Wang was reluctant to divorce at first, but later restitution equivalent to $24,700, arguing that Chen had not shouldered any housework or childcare responsibilities for their son.
She said she was left to take care of the couple’s child and housework alone, as her husband “barely cared about or participated in any kind of domestic chores,” state-run China National Radio (CNR) reports.
Beijing’s Fangshan District Court then ruled in her favour by ordering the husband to pay Wang around $7,700 as “housework compensation,” after splitting their joint property equally. Wang was also awarded custody of their son and $300 per month in alimony.
However, the landmark divorce ruling sparked huge debate online over the value of domestic work, as some persons especially feminists believe the compensation was too little for the woman simply identified as Wang.
Some users of China’s Twitter-like app, Weibo pointed out that the amount for five years’ work was too little, especially in Chinese capital – where the cost of living and income levels are among the highest in the country.
One commentator said;
I’m a bit speechless, the work of a full-time housewife is being underestimated. In Beijing, hiring a nanny for a year costs more than 50,000 yuan.
Others pointed out that men should assume more household duties in the first place.
Some also called on women to continue pursuing their careers after marriage and be always be independent even after marriage.
According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Chinese women spend nearly four hours a day on unpaid work – roughly 2.5 times than that of men.
Meanwhile, China’s marriage rate has been plunging since 2013. And in just six years, the number of Chinese people getting married for the first time has fallen by 41%, according to data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Divorce rates, meanwhile, have climbed nearly five times in the past three decades. According to government statistics, there were 0.69 divorces per thousand people in 1990. By 2019, the latest figures available, that number stood at 3.36.
