What are the real problems behind the "full-time wife becoming a legal profession"

　　I watch two sessions

　　The key to the fair sharing of housework is to break the "gender rules" and encourage men and women to share housework.

　　"Let full-time wives and full-time seniors become legal occupations and enjoy benefits such as accumulated years of service and social security." During the National Two Sessions, Wei Zhenling, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy procurator of the Liuzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, submitted a proposal to establish full-time family service members Occupational rights protection system to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of full-time family service members.

　　This proposal has attracted much attention since it was reported, because it revealed a long-standing problem of unfair distribution: in the family, household chores such as caring for family members, laundry and cooking are not recognized, and there is no corresponding economic return. Relevant workers have not obtained the protection of their due rights and interests.

This situation is unfair to the main bearer of housework - the majority of female compatriots.

　　"Housework" Shouldn't Be "Unpaid Labor"

　　In any form of human society, there are certain "gender rules" implicitly or explicitly.

Family life is also unsurprisingly controlled by "gender rules", and for a long time a gender cooperation method of "males outside and females inside" has been formed.

But modern society has changed, and women, like men, can have jobs and earn wages.

　　In many modern families, husbands and wives each do a job, earn a salary, support the family and spend together.

However, the wife has to raise the children and undertake most of the housework outside of work.

These labors are usually not recognized and have no corresponding economic returns, and are "unpaid labor".

This is obviously unfair.

　　Housework is an important part of intimacy

　　For the problem of not getting a fair return for housework, the academic community has proposed two solutions: one is to generalize the family breadwinner model; the other is the equality model for caregivers.

Both solutions have their pros and cons, and neither is perfect.

　　The so-called "generalized family breadwinner model" refers to encouraging women to go out to work, creating an employment environment that is as good as men's, enabling women to obtain enough economic income by going out to work, and to share the burden of the family with men. expenditure.

　　This means that housework can be outsourced to professional institutions, and no one has to do housework, just share household expenses.

In this way, the problem of unfair returns for housework is solved.

　　However, the truth is that not all housework can be "outsourced".

Many housework is an important part of family intimacy, if family members do not "personally" pay the corresponding labor, then the intimacy within the family will be greatly damaged.

For example, reading bedtime stories to children; washing the feet and beating the backs of elders with limited mobility; breastfeeding babies... These seemingly ordinary housework, but convey a strong sense of family affection, are an indispensable emotional expression in family life.

　　Family life needs to avoid reinforcing gender stereotypes

　　And is another "caregiver equality model" feasible?

　　The "equality model for caregivers" refers to the payment of wages to the party in the family who is mainly responsible for housework and the establishment of a corresponding labor security system.

The proposal submitted by Wei Zhenling for the National Two Sessions this time is based on this idea.

　　This program advocates treating it as a "legal occupation protected by law" on the basis of recognizing and respecting "housework".

In this way, family members who mainly undertake this work can obtain equal status in the family, and at the same time, they can also obtain corresponding economic returns and rights protection from the society.

　　From the standpoint of distributive justice, the proposal is in line with people's understanding of fairness, and it is not impossible to achieve.

For example, the government provides labor subsidies to full-time family workers, and can enjoy relevant benefits such as accumulated working years and labor and social security.

This system concept can be realized through the tax-supported redistribution system and the revision of the relevant provisions of the "Labor Law". The length of service and the specific amount of labor subsidies are calculated according to the length of full-time family service.

At the same time, a percentage of the cost of services can be paid from the other spouse's regular income.

　　However, many scholars who pursue gender equality are strongly opposed to the "caregiver equality" scheme that treats domestic work as a legal occupation.

The rationale is that paying houseworkers will only "lock" most women into their homes, making it more difficult for them to break free from the shackles of their families.

This only reinforces traditional female roles and reinforces stereotypes about women.

　　The key to fairness in housework is to break the "gender rules"

　　In fact, the issue of fairness in housework not only exists in Chinese families, but also in the family life of other countries in the world.

It can even be said that this is an old problem that human society has faced for a long time since the division of labor.

　　For this issue, American scholar Nancy Fraser in her book "Interruption of Justice" proposed a third scheme beyond the above two schemes - the "universal caregiver model" - both men and women share housework plan.

　　In Fraser's view, the correct way to address the unfair burden of housework is to work to eliminate gender stereotypes and encourage men to take the initiative to undertake housework as much as they can, so as to build a more equitable relationship.

Therefore, the key to solving the unfair sharing of housework is to break the "gender rules", break down stereotypes, and encourage men and women to share housework.

　　Of course, for each specific family, the three options above may not be the same depending on the actual situation.

However, this proposal brings the common issue of fair sharing of "housework" into the vision of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, and fully discusses it at the level of the whole society, which still has considerable value.

　　□ Li Shi (Professor of Renmin University of China)