Nurturing the next generation is a shared responsibility of human beings, and as such governments, businesses, families and society should all take their share of responsibility. The family, as the smallest unit that primarily provides parenting support, bears some negative consequences of parenting, such as the difficulty of balancing family and career, and the difficulty of gaining career advancement. Ideally, these negative effects should be shared by all parties in society, but the current situation in China is that all these negative effects are passed on to the mother, resulting in a physical, psychological and economic 'motherhood penalty' for mothers, making the situation of women who intend to have children or have had children even more difficult.
We explore the causes and logic behind these two social phenomena, sorting out the various stakeholders and the complex social relationships, in an attempt to explore the division of labour and the logic of childcare that is appropriate for China's current society. Through service design, we hope to break the stereotype of gender-based division of childcare and work responsibilities in China and reshape the social role of childcare.
