Woman did housework for 5 years, court forces her husband to pay

In one particular case, a Chinese woman has been awarded compensation for her chores during her marriage.

After a big debate about the value of work at home, Mrs. Wang was given 50,000 juan (over 6 thousand euros) for five years' unpaid work she was considered to have done for her former husband, Mr. Chen.

Under the new law, a husband has the right to seek compensation in a divorce if he or she bears more responsibility in raising children, caring for elderly relatives, and helping partners in their work. As such, the presiding judge said that sharing a couple's common wealth after marriage usually involves sharing tangible property, but housework represents the value of inefficiency.

Mr. Chen had filed for divorce from Mrs. Wang last year after five years of marriage, only to have his former partner answer with a request for financial compensation, since he had argued that Chen had received no responsibility for caring for their children or had not contributed to any household work.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Chinese women spend nearly four hours a day working under unpaid jobs approximately 2.5 times the men's. It is a figure that is higher than average in O countries ECD, where women go twice as many as men in unpaid labor.