One of them leads a team in a financial company and earns more than her husband, another is pursuing her dream of becoming a civil servant, and the third is an up-and-coming influencer who dreams of becoming the breadwinner for her family.
No matter what their husbands say or what preferential treatment a Chinese government worried about its ageing population might dangle, the women are all raising one young child and have no plans to have another.
Gone are the days of China’s one-child policy. At a recent political forum, President Xi Jinping urged women to take on greater family responsibilities and “play their unique role in carrying on the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.”
These women see a different role for themselves: This generation was born into small families, and many girls grew up as only children, enjoying opportunities once reserved for boys. Their mothers, who didn’t have multiple children to care for, often worked outside the home and set an example for their daughters to do the same.
“I have to have my own career.”
Joyce Chao, 29, Project Manager
Joyce Zhao had been working as a project manager at a small Beijing technology company for three years and was hoping for a promotion, but when she became pregnant with her son, Ming, her prospects became bleak.
Her boss, who had been pushing her to take on leadership roles, left the team while Ms. Zhao was on five months’ maternity leave, and when she returned to work, her new boss told her she was falling behind and needed to work harder.
““I lost confidence and wondered if it was a mistake to have a child at this point,” Zhao said.
But she says she never once considered quitting her job and staying at home.
“You can only rely on yourself,” Zhao said. “You have to build your career and never give up on it no matter what.”
A few months after Ming’s first birthday, Zhao, 29, decided to quit her job and took a job at one of China’s largest technology companies.
Her husband wants a second child, but Ms. Chao isn’t interested. Her days are already tough enough: A four-hour commute and long work hours mean she gets home long after Ming’s bedtime. She wakes up at 6:30 a.m., spends an hour reading or exercising, another hour playing with her son, and then has breakfast.
After graduating from university, Ms. Zhao has given up her dream of becoming a civil servant in favor of a higher-paying job. Now that she has gotten married and had a child, she plans to study for the notoriously tough civil service exam.
“I divide my time, energy and money into parts, keeping most of it for myself and giving the rest to my parents, husband and son,” Zhao said. “I can’t let them take all of me.”
“I don’t see any benefit to having two children.”
Guo Chunlei, 32, influencer
Before she got married, Guo Chunlei worked at a bank in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou and earned about $2,000 a month, decent by Chinese standards. Her parents bought her a small apartment and a car, and she spent most of her salary on beauty, fashion and travel.
When she decided to give birth in 2022, her husband and parents-in-law, who run the family’s thriving construction business, encouraged her to change jobs to an easier one so she could spend more time with her child. Ms. Guo agreed and joined a listed company as an accountant. But the work was monotonous and unrewarding, and her income was only about one-third of what it used to be.
The huge pay cut became an increasing problem: As her daughter Tiani grew older, expenses skyrocketed; early childhood classes alone consumed a third of her salary.
Seeking extra income and a sense of purpose, Ms. Guo started a mom influencer account on lifestyle app Xiaohongshu last year: A post about planning a traditional Chinese birthday party for her daughter garnered tens of thousands of views and opened the door to brand collaborations.
She now spends her weeknights writing captions, editing photos, and researching products, and photoshoots with Tierney at a nearby park have become a weekend family activity.
With more than 10,000 followers on her account and the income she earns from product sponsorships exceeding her day job, Guo is considering becoming a full-time influencer and hoping to take over as the family’s main breadwinner.
Remembering the sacrifices his parents made to provide for him and his younger brother, Guo decided to pursue a different path.
“I don’t see any benefit to me or Tierney in having two children,” she says.
““I want to achieve something on my own.”
Tang Pingjuan, 36, Financial Manager
Like many working women in China today, 36-year-old Tan Pingjuan has higher expectations than many who came before her.
Growing up under the one-child policy, she recalls being raised wholeheartedly by her father, a train driver, and her mother, a teacher, and, like many girls of her generation, she was given opportunities once reserved for boys.
When it came time to go to college, Tang went hundreds of miles from home and earned a degree in mathematics, a field dominated by men. (Today, nearly a third of Chinese women earn a college degree, up from less than 1% in 1990.)
After graduating, Tang worked in finance before taking a year off at the age of 25 to use her savings to travel to more than 10 countries. Now 36, she runs a team at a private finance company in Guangzhou, the bustling metropolis where she lives with her husband and four-year-old daughter, Ning.
Tan earns more than her husband and makes investment decisions for the family.
Six months after Ning was born, Tang returned to the office, leaving her baby with her grandmother. On weekends, the family likes to enjoy luxurious “staycations” in high-end hotels.
These days, she’s considering taking a promising job in the nearby city of Shenzhen, but that might mean moving away from her family. Her husband and parents-in-law are against the move, but Tang doesn’t want to be held back. She hasn’t completely ruled out having a second child, but said it’s not something she’s considering right now.
“I feel like it’s selfish to put myself before my family, but life is long and I want to achieve something for myself,” she said.
