Post Date December, 03 2023
A recent survey on marriage and family attitudes among urban residents aged 20-45 in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou shows that returning to the family is no longer the exclusive right of women, but has also received support from a considerable number of men. This survey shows that when economic conditions permit, 40% of men say they can abandon their jobs and keep their homes. This number is only 2.9 percentage points lower than that of women.
Do men also want to give up their jobs and return to their families? And the proportion is quite high—— I don't know how the female compatriots will feel when they hear such news. I believe that if the authority of this investigation is worthy of recognition, 'men returning home' would be a good thing.
The first thing to applaud is white-collar women. Many women working in large companies procrastinate their motherhood dates because they are afraid of taking long leave and losing their jobs. When they make up their minds to have a child and then face society again, finding a desirable job is not so easy. At that time, for many young mothers, there would be no need to think about a career, and having a stable career would be great. It is precisely because being a mother may affect the development of their career that many white-collar women would rather "DINK" when facing choices, unaware that such choices are really quite helpless.
Next, women who have just graduated with master's and doctoral degrees should be applauded and welcomed. Men are willing to go home, and there will inevitably be vacant positions in the workplace. At this time, highly educated women finally have the opportunity to showcase their potential and fully utilize it. Perhaps in a relaxed and fair development environment, there is no invisible pressure of gender discrimination in the entrepreneurial process, and talented women can break into a new world—— When men go home and women earn money, as long as everyone is willing, there's nothing wrong with it!
Furthermore, if 40% of men are really willing to return to their families, the remaining 60% of men should also feel a great sigh of relief. At least everyone doesn't have to be so fierce anymore, and the pressure of competition will decrease with the change of people's attitudes - everyone can move forward and retreat, everyone has the opportunity, and starting a business may no longer be a life and death struggle. Also, it would be great to put aside work appropriately, relax for two years, get close to your family, satisfy your long-awaited wishes, adjust your mindset, and go back to the "battlefield"!
However, everything is just 'if'. That 40% of men are likely to be all joking.
Last year, when discussing the revision of the new Marriage Law, some experts proposed "allowing women to return to their families". Some people loudly opposed it, saying that women not only have to bear the responsibility of childbirth, but also have the right to work. "Allowing women to return home" has the suspicion of "discriminating against women". How to explain why men themselves want to return now? This may not indicate that there is a new argument for "gender equality". After all, this society is not yet so fair, and there is still gender discrimination in many aspects. There are many fundamental differences between 'men returning home' and 'women returning home' - the reason why some people still question the latter suggests that 'women returning home' is a tangible alternative way of life; And 'men returning home' is definitely not going to cause a big discussion, because men are just 'talking' or have similar thoughts when they want to be lazy, really letting them go home? There's no way!
On the bus that day, I heard a middle-aged man talking loudly on his phone, probably asking another man to find a way to refuse a job application from a female graduate. He expressed his opinion without hesitation - who wants a female? It's too troublesome, and they will get married and have children in less than two years. In short, it's "for the benefit of the company" or "if possible, not"! That man is particularly reasonable and strong, I believe that's because his arguments can be widely recognized in society. If someone had asked him a question about "who should go home" at that time, he would have raised his hands to support "women going home".
