Reflecting Social Reproduction in Chinese Policy: Learning from Sweden Successful Practices to Promote Gender Equality in Social Reproduction

Abstract

With the development of society, women have become more involved in paid work in the production sphere, but they still mainly perform unpaid domestic work in social reproduction. Women spend much more time on domestic work than men. This results in a double burden on women from work and family and creates the problem of unequal gender division of la-bour in social reproduction. In this case, the improvement of the paternity leave system can effectively promote the sharing of responsibilities between the two sexes in childcare activities, thus breaking the gender division of la-bour in social reproduction and alleviating the double pressure on women. Using the research method of comparative policy analysis, the article focuses on the desirability of the Swedish paternity leave system and compares it with the Chinese paternity leave system. The article then puts forward feasi-ble policy recommendations in light of Chinas actual situation. The article finds that compared to Sweden, Chinas paternity leave system has three ob-vious shortcomings: there is no national legislation providing for male-only paternity leave, paternity leave is often short and rigid, and the cost-burden model is unreasonable. After identifying these three problems, the article suggests that China should improve its paternity leave system in these three aspects: specifying a male quota in the national law, extending the length of paternity leave and increasing the flexibility of the leave method, and estab-lishing a cost-sharing model for society.