Chinese Women Bosses Say Long Hours on Job Don't Hurt Their Kids
BEIJING -- All those American women executives and entrepreneurs who worry that they're harming their children by not spending every waking moment with them should perhaps consult with their counterparts in China.
"I don't feel badly at all about going to work and not spending all my time with my son," says Peggy Yu , co-founder of dangdang.com, China's largest online retailer. "He has his life [in school], and I have my life."
RELATED ARTICLE
Read related columns about managing in China.
? Bosses Who Coach Are Key in China
04/26/05
? Executives in China Need Autonomy
05/10/05
It is a sentiment shared by many Chinese women who are taking advantage of the growing economy to climb the corporate ladder or launch businesses. While a few who are married to newly wealthy men are quitting the work force when they become mothers, most can't afford to do that. And because practically all have mothers who had jobs outside their homes, it doesn't occur to them to feel guilty about working or to worry that their career ambitions will shortchange their children.
Many now in their 30s and 40s learned to be independent early in life because they were separated for long stretches from their parents, who were sent by the government to work in factories and on farms far from their homes. As parents now themselves, they're deeply attached to their children. But they also want to teach them to be independent and to seize opportunities for advancement.
Zhang Lan, founder and chairman of South Beauty, a Beijing-based chain of modish restaurants, sent her son Danny Wang to school in Switzerland when he was 14 years old. He later studied in Toronto and now, at 24, is back in Beijing working with his mother and helping to expand the restaurant chain to Milan and New York.
Asked recently if she regretted sending her son so far from home as a teenager, Ms. Zhang said: "At 15, I was sent to the countryside [during China's Cultural Revolution], and had hardly any playmates. So why should I feel badly about my son having the chance to go to school in Europe?"
Until she was seven, Ms. Yu lived with her grandparents or with aunts and uncles while her parents went to re-education camps. Even after the family was reunited, Ms. Yu was expected to take care of herself while her parents worked as engineers at a steam-generation plant.
After school, she and her classmates went in groups of threes and fours to each other's apartments to do homework together. "Until I came to the U.S., I never heard of the concept of a babysitter," says Ms. Yu, who earned an M.B.A. from New York University's Stern School of Business.
Now 40, she launched dangdang.com -- which sells books, movies, electronic equipment, cosmetics and other products -- with her husband in 1999. And she never considered stopping her career when her son was born seven years ago. Her parents supported her decision. "Our parents' lives were very hard, so now they want us to be financially successful," says Ms. Yu. "And my mom, who's very hardworking, always wanted me to get straight A's and told me to go around the world and do everything possible."
Easing their ability to balance work and family, Chinese women have access to free or low-cost day-care centers. Many also rely on their parents or in-laws to help care for their children, and those in managerial and professional jobs can afford to hire housekeepers and nannies.
Ms. Yu's son was cared for by a nanny when he was a baby. Before he turned two, he started going to a day-care center that is open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. Now he is cared for after school by the family's housekeeper.
None of this means that Chinese women have achieved workplace equality. They face hurdles moving up to senior jobs. "If you look at the top six or seven vice presidents at many large state-owned companies, there is typically only one woman" in the group, says Grace Cheng, managing director of executive recruiter Korn Ferry's Beijing office. Women managers in China tend to be concentrated heavily in human resources rather than manufacturing, finance or even sales and marketing, she notes.And a study last year of 100 business students with corporate jobs by Peking University's Guanghua Management School and Korn Ferry found that to get ahead women typically have to outperform men.
Gillian Zhao, managing director of Apple China, regularly puts in 12- and 14-hour days. She does this not to prove her abilities, she says, but because of her workload. "Global companies have very high expectations of revenue growth in China," she says. To meet targets, she must put in long hours during the week and on weekends, conferring with her employees and customers and with Apple executives in the U.S.
She says she is glad she had her daughter, who is 15, when she started her career as a secretary at Hewlett-Packard. "My job wasn't so challenging then, so I had time for a baby," she says. Her husband, who supports her career success, has also helped out.
Ms. Zhao has four older brothers, she says, "but my parents turn to me for advice because I'm the most successful," she says.
中国女老板：家庭、事业两不误
那些担心没有一丁点时间陪伴子女会给他们带来伤害的美国女性管理人士和企业家真应当向她们的中国同行求教。
中国最大的网上零售商当当网(dangdang.com)的创始人之一俞渝(Peggy Yu)表示，“对于去工作而不花时间陪儿子，我一点也不觉得有什么不对的地方。他有他在学校的生活，而我有我自己的生活。”
许多在经济发展的大潮中谋求职位升迁或创办小企业的中国女性对此都有同感。虽然少数嫁给有钱男人的女性在初为人母后选择辞职在家，但大多数女性还无法做到这一点。而由于实际上所有人的母亲都曾在外工作，对于大多数女性来说，她们对于出去工作并不感到愧疚，也不会担心她们的职业抱负会疏远了和孩子的关系。
许多现在步入三四十岁的中国人很早就学会了独立生活，当时他们被政府送往远离家乡的工厂或农场劳作，不得不与父母长时间分开。如今，他们自己也成了父母，虽然与自己的孩子感情深厚，但他们也希望教育子女学会独立并抓住机会不断进步。
高档餐饮连锁店俏江南(South Beauty)的创始人兼董事长张兰在她的儿子Danny Wang年仅14岁的时候便把他送去瑞士念书。Danny后来又在多伦多求学。现在，24岁的Danny回到了北京，与妈妈一道工作，帮助将悄江南拓展到米兰和纽约。
最近，当被问道她是否后悔当初让才十几岁的儿子离家远行的时候，张兰说，“在我15岁的时候，我被下放到农村（中国文化大革命时期），几乎没有任何伙伴。所以，我儿子既然有机会去欧洲读书，我为什么要感到难过呢？”
在七岁以前，俞渝都和祖父母或阿姨叔叔住在一起，而她的父母都去接受贫下中农再教育了。即便是在全家团圆后，由于父母在汽化厂担任工程师，俞渝也必须自己照顾自己。
放学后，俞渝和她的同学三五成群地去对其中一个人的家里做功课。俞渝说，“在来美国以前，我从未听说过保姆的概念。”俞渝拥有纽约大学Stern商学院(New York University Stern School of Business)的MBA学位。
现年40岁的俞渝与她的丈夫在1999年创办了当当网，销售图书、电影、电子设备、化妆品及其他产品。七年前，她的儿子出世了，然而她从未考虑过放弃自己的职业生涯。她的父母也支持她的决定。俞渝说，“我们父辈曾经历过很苦的生活，因此现在他们希望我们能过上好日子。我的妈妈总希望我门门功课都成绩优秀，并告诉我到世界各地转转，做一切可能做的事情。”
中国女性可以寻求免费或低成本的托儿所，从而减轻了他们平衡工作和家庭的压力。许多人也依赖于自己或配偶的父母来帮助照看孩子，而那些拥有管理和专业职位的女性也负担得起雇佣家政人员和保姆的费用。
俞渝的儿子在婴儿时期是由一位保姆照顾的。到两岁的时候，他开始被送往托儿所，托儿所从早上7点到下午5点半开放，每天提供早餐、午餐和晚餐。现在，他放学后，家里有家政人员照顾他。
这一切并不意味著中国女性已经实现了工作平等。他们在升职方面面临重重障碍。高管猎头公司Korn Ferry北京办事处的董事总经理Grace Cheng表示，“许多大型国有企业的六七个副总裁中，往往只有一个是女性。”她说，中国的女性管理人士通常大量集中在人力资源，而不是在制造、金融、甚至销售和市场营销领域。去年，Korn Ferry和北京大学光华管理学院(Peking University's Guanghua Management School)对100位在职商学院学生的调查显示，为了获得升迁，女性必须比男性更加出色。
苹果电脑中国区董事总经理赵方(Gillian Zhao)通常必须每天工作12到14个小时。她说，这样做并不是为了证明自己的能力，而是她的工作量太大。赵方说，“跨国公司对中国市场的收入增长期望很高。”为了达到目标，她必须长时间工作，甚至周末也不休息，与她的雇员、客户以及苹果电脑在美国的管理人士交换意见。
赵方说，她很高兴自己在初入职场、在惠普(Hewlett-Packard)担任秘书的时候生下了女儿。她的女儿已经15岁了。“我当时的工作不像现在这么有挑战性，因此我有时间照顾小孩，”她说。赵方的丈夫也帮了大忙。
赵方有四个哥哥。“但父母总是征求我的意见，因为我是最成功的一个，”她说。
