Single mum in legal fight for China’s unmarried mothers
- One Shanghai woman is battling alone against contradictory Chinese laws surrounding children born out of wedlock
Chris Zou had just broken up with her boyfriend when she learned she was pregnant. She shared the news with him and, despite his opposition, decided to raise the baby alone. Three years later, Zou is blazing a legal trail for China’s growing number of unmarried mothers.
Zou, 43, is an experienced employee with a multinational company in Shanghai. She has managed to provide for her son Xinxin alone and she has navigated the complex process of getting him identity papers. But for all her determination and competence, she has so far been unable to make a claim for her employer-provided maternity insurance.
Local authorities told her she could not lodge a claim without providing a marriage certificate and the father’s information details. Believing any mother whose employer had paid for a policy had the right to make a claim, Zou has been in litigation with the local government since early last year.
“I found no mothers like me had taken it to court before, so I thought I should do it,” she said.
Whether Zou wins or loses is not important. What’s important is that it has aroused the attention of the public and the authorities.
China’s laws surrounding children born out of wedlock are contradictory. The marriage law prescribes that children like Xinxin enjoy the same rights as those born to married couples, while the population and family planning law imposes a fine on unmarried parents, called “social support expenditure”.