Photo: CFP

The human resources and social security authority in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, recently released a list of employers offering jobs suitable for women who have to juggle work, motherhood and housework, a latest move for the city to promote a child-bearing friendly society.

The list includes 190 positions from seven employers covering multiple fields such as catering, domestic and security services. Most of the positions are hourly paid jobs, the People's Daily reported on Monday citing Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security. 

Among the list, Pizza Hut and KFC in Qingdao have provided 50 part time posts respectively. 

Apart from Qingdao, multiple cities in Shandong, such as Linyi city, also issued an announcement on November 20 to collect positions suitable for working mothers from the society. 

These positions are flexible in working hours and are suitable for stay-at-home mothers. The jobs range from remote customer service, e-commerce livestreaming, to handmade products manufacturing and content creation for we media, offering working mothers a balance between family and work.

Meanwhile, techniques, management, sales, production and other professional positions with flexible working hours, moderate labor intensity, and good working conditions are also on the list. Many of these positions allow two-day weekends and accommodate for school drop-offs and pick-ups, and other needs related to childcare and household responsibilities. 

The collecting and releasing of the positions for working mothers in multiple places in Shandong is a further move for the province to support working mothers after the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Shandong Province issued a notice in September to promote a working mother-friendly employment pattern. 

The notice referred to the working mother-friendly jobs as those that accommodate women of legal working age who are responsible for raising children under the age of 12. These jobs offer relatively flexible working hours, allowing women to balance work and childcare responsibilities. 

In exploration of the new employment pattern for working mothers, the notice said employers and employees can negotiate flexible working arrangements, avoid mandating work overtime and allow employees to take leave during working hours when their children need to be looked after. 

Apart from Shandong, several provinces including South China's Guangdong, North China's Hebei and Northeast China's Heilongjiang provinces have also promoted working mother-friendly jobs. 

In May of this year, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province and the women's federation in the city identified a group of employers with remarkable results and achieving a positive social impact. The city-level working mother-friendly employment bases offer them subsidies of up to 200,000 yuan ($27,496) a year for the first year and up to 100,000 yuan in the second year, a total maximum award of 300,000 yuan. 

This June, the women's federation in Hebei initiated an exploration of working mother-friendly employment pattern in Xingtai city by launching a pilot entrepreneur and employment action plan for women to set up job positions, carry out recruitment and conduct skill training. So far, 25,000 women have set up their own businesses or gained employment.

Global Times