At the Fangshan People's Court in Beijing this week, a 61-year-old woman surnamed Gu ended a 34-year nightmare when she obtained a divorce decree from an abusive husband.
Gu said he had been beating her for years. The court issued a writ barring the husband, surnamed Zhao, from any future verbal or physical threats against her.
It's all part of China's new domestic violence law.
"The law elevates the issue of domestic violence to a new level for the first time," said Feng Yuan, co-founder of Equality, a gender equality research organization. "It gives hope to the victims of abuse."
According to the All-China Women's Federation, nearly 25 percent of Chinese women have suffered violence in their marriage, and that's only the violence that is reported. The federation receives about 40,000 abuse complaints a year, and 88 percent of the calls in 2014 involved abuse against wives. Most women don't get desperate enough to notify police until the abuse has gone on a long time or becomes more violent.
"The power of the law depends on whether people choose to use it," said Feng. "So we encourage domestic violence victims to come forth."
Separate, nonprofit groups involved in the issue of gender equality in China are calling on authorities to acknowledge the unpaid domestic work done by women.
The group United Nations Women launched an online survey recently on its official account on Weibo, one of China's biggest online social platforms. It looked at the issue of uncompensated labor in the home.
Co-sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the survey asked interviewees to state how much time they or female members of their household spend on home chores.
"Uncompensated work, including making dinners, cleaning and taking care of seniors and children, is not entertainment," said the survey in its description.
More than 20,000 people participated in the survey, which found that more than 20 percent of the interviewees or their female family members do more than eight hours of uncompensated housework every day.
"In China, women shoulder most of the housework, but their labor is not properly valued," said Feng. "That disparity is reflected in the unfair property divisions in divorce cases."
Feng said some Western governments give compensation to stay-at-home women, but such compensation actually reinforces the traditional gender role of women. In other countries, governments encourage men to shoulder more family responsibility.
"The latter makes a bigger contribution to gender equality," said Feng. "We think the Chinese government should issue policies urging men to do more housework and to take more daily responsibility for their families."
