Women deserve more care from men

By Yang Wanli (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-26 09:50

Last week, I accompanied my friend who is seven months pregnant to a physical checkup at the clinic because her husband was too busy to go with her.

While complaining about her man to me, my friend still remembered to call him to remind him of having meals on time. The only reply from him was "When will you be back home?"

It was astonishing to see that many mothers-to-be in the hospital took care of those "big boys" instead of being looked after by them. Some walked up stairs in the hospital carefully step by step, while their men walked fast ahead.

Pregnancy seemed to have nothing to do with some men. Instead, women took sole responsibility for it. "He will be more caring after he becomes a father," I comforted my friend. But will he? I don't know.

Most women in China are used to the idea that they should serve the families, their children and husbands.

The feminism movement in the West started in the 18th century, with the belief that women were victims of themselves and men. In the 1950s, Chinese women were encouraged to study and do things that were once only pursued by men.

Chinese women have been struggling for equal rights. They now can go to universities, marry the men they love and get jobs which were reserved for men in the past. They have made a tremendous contribution to China's development.

But China remains a male-dominated society with most women having to juggle their work commitments and family responsibilities. Some husbands may lend a hand with housework. But pregnancy and parenting are deemed essentially, if not exclusively, the responsibility of women.

Women deserve greater care for their physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual health, especially when they are doing so much for their families, children and their men.

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