The Policy Measures Used by the Hong Kong Government to Respond to the Adult Worker Model and the Male-breadwinner Model
Chinese Families: Tradition, Modernisation, and Change
ISBN: 978-1-80071-157-0, eISBN: 978-1-80071-156-3
Publication date: 25 January 2021
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter aims to explore the strategies used by the Hong Kong government to respond to the adult worker model and the male-breadwinner model; and to explore the views of women on the desirability of these strategies. The male-breadwinner model posits that men work full-time outside the home and women take on domestic work. The adult worker model suggests that women and men should be equally expected to participate in formal employment.
Design/methodology/approach – This chapter analyses the policy measures used by the Hong Kong government to support women in their participation in formal employment and the local work-based pension scheme (the Mandatory Provident Fund) as well as other policy measures that offer potential for enabling family care providers to accumulate resources for secure retirement. Additionally, it draws on semi-structured interviews with 30 Hong Kong young women to examine their views on the extent to which the government supports them to save pension incomes.
Findings – This study shows that the Hong Kong government uses a ‘weak action strategy’ to respond to the adult worker model and the male-breadwinner model, and that this strategy fails to meet women’s diverse preferences for their roles in the labour market and the family.
Originality/value – Based on a newly developed framework, this study examines the responses made by the government to both the male-breadwinner model and the adult worker model. It sheds new insights into possible ways of assisting women to achieve secure retirement .
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgement
This chapter is partly supported by the General Research Fund under the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (grant number 12604517); and part of the work has received funding from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 708305.
Citation
Yu, S.W.K., Lo, I.P.Y. and Chau, R.C.M. (2021), "The Policy Measures Used by the Hong Kong Government to Respond to the Adult Worker Model and the Male-breadwinner Model", Kan, M.-Y. and Blair, S.L. (Ed.) Chinese Families: Tradition, Modernisation, and Change (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 16), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 175-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520210000016010
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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