Vicky Xu / Shanghai Daily news
A recent college research report found that female employees of
foreign-invested companies are leading a hard life after their babies are born.
More than half of these women even have to forego maternity leave for some
reason.
A Fudan University research center which focuses on social
developments has made public their latest findings on the benefits and
living-conditions of female employees at multinationals. They found that fierce
competition has imposed great pressure on these women, including both
high-income white-collars and relatively low-income blue-collars. In fact the
blue-collar women seem to bear a heavier burden both psychologically and
economically.
Most white-collar women are agonising over whether to have a
baby or not, or struggling to keep a balance between family and work
responsibilities after giving birth, the report said. Once these women commence
employment with the multinationals, they find themselves in a very competitive
workplace. To retain their current post and earnings, alongwith the high living
standard and luxury outlays, they have to surrender to endless work and
life-long study. If they aspire to promotion, that means no children. If they
already have a baby, it means exhausting their body and soul between the home
and the office.
The research group found that 58.6 percent of such women with
babies didn't have maternity leave for these reasons. In the context of
globalization, perhaps a baby-sitting service is required for such
multinationals, as in many foreign countries, but these have yet to be
introduced in China.