Opinion | For women, China’s new divorce law is a step back for gender equality

The new cooling-off period is designed to make couples think twice about divorce amid falling birth rates. However, it only makes it harder for housewives and abused women to leave their husbands

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A bride poses for a wedding photographer next to East Lake in Wuhan, in central Hubei province, on April 19, 2020. The new divorce law is another example of the Chinese government’s intervention in family matters. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:45am, 1 May 2021Updated: 6:59am, 1 May 2021

Chinese social media erupted recently over a Hunanese woman’s endless attempts to divorce her abusive, gambling-addicted husband since 2016. Four divorce petitions and two protective orders were not enough for Ning Shunhua to escape her violent husband.

Ning is now on her fifth divorce attempt. It will not be surprising if this one proves even tougher, given the new divorce law that came into effect this year.

Under the new law, couples filing for divorce are required to complete a 30-day cooling-off period. If one spouse decides to withdraw the divorce application during this period or does not turn up for the final approval, the other party has to either apply again or sue for a divorce, which can be costly. The law has faced tremendous public resistance.

The reason for the new law is simple: to curb impulsive divorces as a way to improve the birth rate, according to government officials dismayed by the rising divorce rate. Since 2000, divorces have risen from 0.96 per thousand to 3.36 in 2019, and the rate has soared since the start of the pandemic.

While seemingly a legislative response to the legacy of the one-child policy, the new law rolls back gender equality in two significant ways.

First, it disadvantages the partner without an independent source of income, which tends to be the woman.

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