Single mothers in China face Catch-22 when they apply for maternity benefits, but this woman is unbowed
- Although China has relaxed its reproductive restrictions, unmarried women still face obstacles to becoming single mums – including having to buy sperm abroad
- Once they give birth, contradictory laws stop them obtaining maternity insurance and government subsidies, as one mother’s court battle showed
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For Chris Zou, a three-year odyssey through the Chinese court system has left her exactly where she started: tasked with raising her three-year-old son without government help.
Zou did not marry her son’s father but in 2016 decided to keep her child anyway. In 2017, the single mother tried and failed to obtain employer-provided maternity insurance because she could not provide a marriage licence.
Married couples in China are entitled to maternity insurance and to subsidies through a programme that provides financial relief to women after their children are born.
Despite the outcome, Zou believes the lawsuits were worth pursuing because she thinks she has helped reveal some of the contradictory laws and regulatory hurdles faced by single mothers in China.
“For mothers who are in the same situation as me, I believe the case provides them with enormous support. They could identify with [my situation] and have confidence knowing this community exists,” she told the Post.
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Dong Xiaoying, a lawyer based in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and founder of the Advocates for the Diverse Family Network, agrees.
“Her case serves as an educational example and an inspiration,” Dong said.
As China has relaxed its reproductive restrictions, unmarried women have found it easier to have children. In the past, the government often fined unmarried mothers and denied children born out of wedlock a hukou – the household registration that grants access to education and health care.
And, as Zou’s case shows, unmarried mothers often find it impossible to receive government aid.
In 2019, Advocates for the Diverse Family Network mailed proposals to hundreds of government representatives in Shanghai calling for equal treatment for unmarried mothers.
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China’s laws governing children born out of wedlock are contradictory. The social insurance law dictates that mothers are entitled to employer-provided maternity insurance. But local interpretations require the insured woman to prove their “childbearing status” – proof that is impossible to obtain without a marriage certificate.
New mothers will often run into this Catch-22 and give up when their local government offices reject them, said Zou.
“I felt the policy was illogical and that the community of unmarried mothers desperately needed people to help them,” she said.
Zou said she found many similar cases of women who worked for companies that did not provide a decent insurance package, or who risked losing their jobs if they filed a complaint.
Last week, Advocates for the Diverse Family Network released a brochure and a video about the hurdles unmarried women have to overcome to have kids. It pointed out that single mothers have to go abroad to buy sperm legally, they do not have access to assisted birthing technology, and often face employment discrimination.
Dong said she had seen improvements. In recent years, the network has for the first time received responses from lawmakers and representatives, saying they are aware and concerned about the issue.
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“Next, we will follow up with legal and policy advocacy, including lobbying congress representatives,” she said. “We will certainly continue to support unmarried mothers’ fight for their rights.”
For Zou, the fight was less about money than the legitimacy of her child.
“I don’t want my child’s birth to be labelled ‘against policy’. Even though I lost the case, I do not admit that having children while unmarried is against any laws,” she said.
