The Sexual Division of Care in Mainland China and Hong Kong.

The concern of this paper is with the sexual division of care in Hong Kong, China, and mainland China. As will be seen in the later sections, women in China and Hong Kong are expected to take up far more caring responsibilities than men. The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which the sexual division of domestic labour is influenced by traditional Chinese values and contemporary political and economic factors. Certainly an examination of the cultural factor sheds considerable light on the gender division of care. However, it is still not sufficient to help us understand the whole picture. Attention should also be paid to the political and economic factors. The state policy occupies a central role in reinforcing the social construction of caring relationships. To understand the social construction of women as carers in traditional Chinese society, it is necessary to study the nature of the family because most of the care-giving processes take place in the domestic sphere. Hong Kong is located on the south coast of China. Of the 6 million population, over 90% are Chinese. It is often seen by the world as a typical capitalist society.