Why Hong Kong is failing its young families
With its paltry maternity/paternity leave, inflexible working hours and lack of breastfeeding support at the office, Hong Kong is failing new parents, reports Angharad Hampshire.
"Hong Kong is a workplace not a family place," says Edith Lemardelee, a French maternity nurse who has worked in the city for more than 20 years. "There's absolutely no flexibility here for families."
She is responding to the question of whether the city's statutory maternity leave of 10 weeks at 80 per cent pay is adequate. I have put this question formally to 20 women of different nationalities and from various walks of life. Informally, I have discussed this subject with many more women. During these conversations, it quickly becomes clear that the maternity-leave question reflects, at a microcosmic level, attitudes in Hong Kong towards women, family, breastfeeding, equality, the place of a child within society and the role of government in family life.
"Nothing is made in Hong Kong for the mother," says Lemardelee, with clear frustration. "Local women here have 10 weeks [maternity leave] plus, if they're lucky, two weeks of annual leave, and then they are back. Forget breastfeeding - that usually stops when women go back to work. If not, they pump in the toilet. And mothers are made to feel guilty for wasting time when they pump or go to the doctor."
"It is not easy being a working mother in Hong Kong," agrees Prudence Li On-kan, a senior accountant in a local firm and mother of an eight-month-old girl. "You need a lot of support.
"I am lucky," says Li, who shares an 800 sq ft apartment in Tuen Mun with her husband, daughter and parents-in-law. "I have my parents-in-law helping me. My cousin, who had a baby girl three months ago, has to leave her at her mother's apartment from Monday to Friday. She only sees the baby at the weekend. So, she can't breastfeed and it's not good for her relationship with her baby."
Women make up 44.7 per cent of Hong Kong's workforce. This government statistic doesn't include foreign domestic workers (FDW), who are mainly female. Seventy-five per cent of women of childbearing age (16 to 45) work full-time in Hong Kong. A recent study showed that within six months of having a baby, 75 per cent of new mothers are back at work full-time.