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Press Release

Results on Survey regarding Women's Status at Home

The Women's Commission (WoC) released today (November 22) the results on a survey regarding the perception of women and men in Hong Kong towards women's status at home.

The findings revealed that the concept of "women as homemakers" was still common in the society.  At the same time, there was room for improvement for women's status at home.

The Chairperson of WoC, Ms Sophia Kao said, "The survey revealed that women remained largely responsible for household duties.  This notwithstanding, less than half of the population considered that men should take up a larger share of household duties than they did at present.  This showed that the community in general considered that women should be responsible for housework and the concept of 'women as homemakers' was still prevalent."

"On the other hand, the survey found that over 80% of persons agreed that both men and women should contribute to the household's finance, reflecting a change from the traditional concept that men should be the breadwinner of families and their primary duties were to deal with external affairs.  At the same time, it showed that the society had generally accepted the change in women's economic role."

As shown in the survey results, gender stereotype was commonly found in the division of household work as well as the role in decision making.  In particular, women were largely responsible for household chores such as childcaring, cleansing and laundry, grocery shopping and preparing meals, etc..  They were also the major decision maker for matters concerning daily routines.

On the other hand, men were usually responsible for making financial decisions and they participated less in housework.  The results suggested that it was still prevalent for women to be family carers.

On attitude towards marriage, the survey suggested that over 40% of persons, men and women alike, felt comfortable with being single and without any plans to get married.  It showed that singlehood had become increasingly acceptable to the community. The survey results also revealed that nearly half of the people accepted cohabitation relationship, with men displaying a higher acceptance than women whom around 40% showed acceptance. 

As regards choice of childbirth, it was revealed that social acceptance of single mothers was rather low.

Regarding attitude towards divorce, the survey found that both men and women tended to agree that divorce was the best solution for a married couple who could not live together harmoniously provided that they did not have any children. In particular, women were more inclined to choose divorce as a solution.  However, where a married couple had children, the percentage of persons supporting divorce dropped significantly to around 20%.

Men were invited to evaluate the status and the level of satisfaction of their spouses/companions at home while women were also asked to give their own ratings.  The findings revealed that both women's self-rating and men's evaluation of the status of their spouses/companions at home were only mediocre.  However, the average level of satisfaction towards women's status at home was higher than the average score of women's status at home.

"The results indicated that the society tended to accept the mediocre status of women at home, which reflected that gender awareness needed to be strengthened," said Ms Kao.

The above survey was commissioned by WoC to Policy 21 Limited.  Between February and May 2010, a total of 3 002 Hong Kong residents within a scientifically selected sample were successfully enumerated by means of face-to-face interviews.

The above survey results had been weighted in proportion to the latest demographics of Hong Kong to reflect the situation of Hong Kong's population aged 18 or above.

Highlights of the survey findings are available on WoC's website (https://www.women.gov.hk).

 

ENDS

22 November, 2010 (Monday)