Children in more than 40 percent of families with one full-time
parent are looked after by house husbands, a survey conducted by
the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences suggests.
The survey covered 742 families in which the mother or the
father is a full-time parent.
Of the total, 57.5 percent were full-time mothers and the rest
were full-time fathers.
The percentage took researchers by surprise.
"Even full-time mothers disappeared after Liberation in 1949 as
women were encouraged to work. But now not only full-time mothers
but also full-time fathers have aroused attention from social
scientists as the proportion closes," said Bao Leiping who was in
charge of the survey.
"It also indicates that local families have diverse forms," she
added.
The survey showed that the decision for a husband to become a
full-time parent is more often an economic one.
More than 65 percent of full-time fathers surveyed said they
were at home because they had no job or had been laid-off.
Nearly 60 percent of the surveyed full-time mothers said they
wanted to better educate their children and that their family was
already rich enough.
A full-time father surnamed Zhang said he used to have a good
position in a court outside the city. In order to live together
with his wife who works in Shanghai he passed the examination to
study doctoral courses in the city.
"Now that I have more leisure time, I should do more for the
family, including taking care of our child. I will surely work
again in the future," Zhang said.
Bao said families with full-time parents are often not
wealthy.
In the survey, one-third of the sampled full-time parents came
from the countryside and they were less satisfied with their
family's economic income and living conditions than parents who
work.
Bao said parents who choose to be full-time have two extremes.
Some have enough money not to work while the others cannot find
work.
(Shanghai Daily April 16, 2007)