There are two companies in China that are offering a “dating leave” for their unmarried female employees. The leave consists of extra eight days off in addition to their seven-day Lunar New Year break.
On January 21, Hangzhou Songcheng Performance and Hangzhou Songcheng Tourism Management made an announcement about this kind of leave. They followed the initiative of Dinglan Experimental Middle School, which offered a “love leave” to its single and childless educators last January 15.
According to The South China Morning Post, the “dating leave” is for unmarried female employees above the age of 30 who are not “front-line workers.” The companies that offered the said leave operate the Song Dynasty Town tourist attraction. They rationalized that some of their female employees have less contact with people outside.
“The ratio of men to women in our company is about the same,” Huang Lei, human resources manager of Hangzhou Songcheng Performance, was quoted as saying. “Women employees mostly work in internal functional departments and some are show performers… some female staff have less contact with the outside world.”
Huang also mentioned that the “dating leave” is intended to provide female employees with more opportunities to interact with the opposite sex. Apparently, this kind of leave turned out to be a good idea because as it was received warmly by the employees.
In China, unmarried women over 30 are commonly regarded as “leftover women” or “shengnu” due to long-held conservative beliefs that women who remain unmarried beyond their mid-twenties are less desirable to men. The “dating leave” somewhat gave a spotlight on the harsh marriage opportunity among these women.
Although well-received, one commenter asked who would date the single women on leave if the men weren’t given the same kind of leave as well.
Hmmm. Seems like a good point?
Also, do you think this would be applicable in the Philippines?
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