Chinese court orders man to pay ex-wife $7,700 for housework in landmark divorce case

Wang, a homemaker, demanded restitution equivalent to $24,700 from her husband after he filed for divorce at a district court in Beijing in October. Wang said she was left to take care of the couple’s child and housework alone, as her husband “barely cared about or participated in any kind of domestic chores,” the state-run China National Radio (CNR) reported.

The ruling, which was first reported by local media in early February, became a trending topic on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, this week after a hashtag was created to draw attention to the court’s decision. As of Wednesday, the hashtag has been viewed more than 500 million times. While some comments applauded the ruling as a recognition of the hard, unpaid labor at home, others said the amount awarded was too little to cover five years of housework and childcare.

Unequal gender roles in domestic life have been a topic of public debate in China in recent years amid a rising feminist movement. Despite increasing education levels and women’s growing economic status, gender norms and patriarchal traditions have not caught up with these changes, and women are still expected to carry out most of the childcare and housework after marriage.

China’s divorce laws

Housework compensation is designed to offer additional protection to spouses who have undertaken more domestic chores — and sacrificed opportunities to advance their career or education, according to legal experts.

“This means that the homemaker has to pay a hidden cost in addition to the efforts they paid during the marriage,” Long said.

The right to seek housework compensation in divorce proceedings is not a new concept in Chinese law. In 2001, housework compensation was added to a revision of China’s marriage law with the precondition that it only applied to couples who agreed to separation of property, in which each spouse retains exclusive ownership of property acquired during the marriage.

In reality, however, legal experts say few Chinese couples have reached formal agreement to keep their property separate, so it’s rare for divorcing spouses to qualify for court-approved housework compensation.

Falling marriage, rising divorce

On Weibo, many users expressed disappointment that Wang was only awarded $7,700, after she dedicated five years of her life to taking care of her family, especially in the Chinese capital — where the cost of living and income levels are among the highest in the country.

“This is why young people are not willing to get married and have children. The cost is too high,” said another.

China’s marriage rate has been plunging since 2013. And in just six years, the number of Chinese people getting married for the first time has fallen by 41%, according to data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

Divorce rates, meanwhile, have climbed nearly five times in the past three decades. According to government statistics, there were 0.69 divorces per thousand people in 1990. By 2019, the latest figures available, that number stood at 3.36.

Feng Miao, the judge who presided over the Beijing court case, told CNR that the amount of compensation in this ruling was decided based on factors including the husband’s income levels and the cost of living in the Chinese capital.

Now that the new civil code is in force, the judge said she expected more cases involving demands for housework compensation to be filed. “But in practice, we still need to accumulate experience in how to meter out the amount of compensation,” she said.