Lillian Chow
- 2021年8月12日
- 讀畢需時 3 分鐘

Over 60 companies signing pledge to support Women Sustainable Career Development

In the past year, many mothers needed to work while taking care of their children, which made them very stressed. Womentors, acting as a sustainable partner, worked with JCI Hong Kong Jayceettes and Hong Kong Momtrepreneurs, carried out a survey in May aiming to understand more about what the mothers need and the reasons leading to their stress.

More than 100 mothers took part in the survey and some key highlights are as follows.

Firstly, the long working hours per day. More than 85% of respondents need to work more than 8 hours. Due to the pandemic, mothers even need to spend an extra 4 hours taking care of their families, which makes them feel very stressed.

Secondly, a lack of help from foreign domestic helpers. Before COVID, more than half of the respondents relied on the help from foreign domestic helpers to take care of their children. But starting from 2021, the number of foreign helpers has decreased from 400K to 370K because of the pandemic measures, which made a lot of working mothers feel stressed.

Thirdly, the reasons for high stress levels. More than 80% of respondents indicated the difficulty of striking a balance between work and family and they feel stressed. The main reasons are long working hours and they need to take care of their children which lead to poor time management, their income is affected due to the pandemic and children need to have zoom learning.

Under Secretary Mr Ho Kai-ming, JP from the Labour and Welfare Bureau witnessed the pledge ceremony

Nearly 80% of respondents want to have an inclusive working environment, and 98% of them pointed out that their seniors are not understandable. Therefore, nearly 40% of respondents gave up promotion opportunities and 63% of respondents wanted to leave the workforce to take care of their families. Some of them continue working because of financial incentives.

More than 60% of respondents hope the government can support them by increasing the dates of maternity leave and launching more childcare services. More than half of them wish to gain seniors’ understanding and have flexible working hours. At the same time, more than half of respondents also hope that there will be more support for children learning.

There are more than 60 companies that have signed up for our “Women Retention Pledge” already. Womentors will continue working with these companies to support them in building better workplaces for their talents.