Meng Lei introduces a book via livestreaming in a special room designed for birth-friendly posts at Fanshu App. GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY

When Meng Lei fell pregnant within six months of starting work at one of China's biggest online reading apps in 2020, she worried she might have to voluntarily resign like many women in a similar predicament have done in the past.

But her supervisors at Fanshu App were more concerned Meng had considered quitting her job because she was pregnant.

"I still remember their words," said Meng, now 37 and thriving in her role as the director of Fanshu's psychology institute. "They said if our company, which aims to promote reading and kindness, has no place for a pregnant woman, we are already done. You can just settle down and work here in peace," Meng recalled them telling her.

Formerly known as Fan Deng Reading, and with over 77 million registered users as of March, Fanshu's bosses promised Meng her work while pregnant would not be "superficial".

Meng, who is married and lives in Shanghai, said she was never excluded or marginalized at work during her pregnancy.

The bosses carefully considered her talents and placed her in a suitable position, where she was able to continue creating value for the company and have a sense of purpose.

Working with a pleasant team and enjoying a birth-friendly corporate culture, Meng received strong support from her colleagues throughout the whole process.

"My workload was a proper workload, and the company's policies allowed me to get off work one hour early. I was always in a very good mood, and loved the beautiful sunset on my way back home," said Meng with a smile.

When she returned from maternity leave the support continued. Meng said she was understood and accepted by her workmates and given time to adapt to her new role. She eventually became a department director and now handles a business worth millions of yuan annually.

Flexible arrangements

Birth-friendly posts such as Meng's usually offer flexible working hours and opportunities to work remotely, which help employees balance work and pregnancy.

Besides the role of department director, Meng also does livestreams on Fanshu twice a week to promote reading, share her personal experiences, and help boost viewers' self-worth.

He Yanhong, a 36-year-old employee at the Shanghai Mengxiao Counseling Support Center, is another fortunate woman who had a smooth transition to becoming a working mother.

After giving birth in 2017, she spent about 11 months working remotely from home, where she was able to take good care of her baby while feeling positive about her career.

"The sense of feeling trusted, extremely valued and the warmth, made me more motivated and responsible for my work," said He. To smooth the process, she upgraded her skills and learned how to write official documents while also making strong contributions to the center's operation.

As a nonprofit private operation specializing in mental health services, the center has over 1,200 full-time and part-time psychological counselors and therapists in Shanghai. It has a further 4,000 counselor candidates on its self-developed service platform. Making the most of the profession's flexibility in work hours and locations, the center offers favorable options for working mothers seeking a balance between their careers and family.

Meng Xiao, founder of the center, said over 97 percent of her team are women, who she views as family members.

"We support each other a lot. A birth-friendly job may seem like a lesser post, but it actually offers a lot including a sense of security for a woman, her family and even her life," Meng said.

She added that setting up birth-friendly posts can be a practical option for business owners seeking a balance between economic benefits and social responsibility. This approach sends a positive signal, which is important when young people are becoming increasingly worried about getting married and having a child.

Much-needed talent

Fanshu App, with average annual revenue of nearly 1 billion yuan ($137.5 million), offers more than 100 birth-friendly posts. It also empowers thousands of working mothers by offering them livestreaming skills and platforms to earn an income.

Liu Yi, director of public affairs and president of the women's union at Fanshu, said offering birth-friendly posts is not just a "charitable" gesture or an expression of social values and responsibility. She said the women who fill these jobs are "exactly the talents we need".

"They can gain a sense of security and stability, better concentrate on their work, and can be more creative and generate value. It is a positive 'win-win' measure for both of us," Liu said.

Birth-friendly posts are drawing greater attention as the nation ramps up efforts to bolster birth rates in the face of an aging population. China's total population declined for the third consecutive year in 2024, falling by 1.39 million to 1.408 billion, largely due to lower birth rates and a shrinking number of women of childbearing age, official data showed.

A report released by the China Population and Development Research Center revealed that 67.3 percent of female respondents said they were reluctant to have children due to concerns about their career development.

Shanghai launched a pilot program on birth-friendly posts last November. The project encourages employers to facilitate work and motherhood for employees through flexible management of work hours, leave, and remote work. In February, both Fanshu App and the Shanghai Mengxiao Counseling Support Center were included on the Shanghai government's inaugural list of 12 birth-friendly employers.

Female 'utopia'

In Jianshan village in Chengdu, Sichuan province, a group of like-minded working women have struck out on their own to control their work lives.

In 2019, Zeng Jiao left her busy office job to establish a "natural healing shelter" at Lezhi Farm for disaffected working women. Since then, Zeng and her all-female team have seen their business revenue grow from roughly 129,000 yuan in 2020 to over 3 million yuan last year.

Offering diverse services including natural food products, camping, photography and activities planning, the farm has organized over 1,000 activities and serves more than 5,000 clients per year. Team members come from diverse backgrounds, including Fortune Global 500 companies, NGOs, big State-owned enterprises, education groups, and multichannel network agencies.

The women share the same goal of building a "utopia" for office workers aged between 25 and 45 who find no connection to or relevance in city jobs, or are simply not able to relax and enjoy their lives.

"At the start, we were only three girls who knew little about building, operating and managing a business. It was our clients who generously shared their practical experience and knowhow with us," said 28-year-old Zeng.

She said those sharing their business knowledge were glad to see Lezhi grow into the workplace utopia they themselves had failed to build. "Lezhi is not only our business, but is supported by a crowd of people," Zeng said during a training camp organized by Swiss banking giant UBS AG and the Rural Women Development Foundation of Guangdong province in February in Shanghai.

For the third year, the two parties joined hands to support rural women, with a special focus on entrepreneurship.

Women aged between 30 and 40 accounted for about 60 percent of the 25 entrepreneurs at the training camp. Various projects were presented in sectors such as agricultural products, handicrafts, cultural tourism, housekeeping services, farming, public welfare and social services.

Sun Wanying, a 35-year-old woman from Harbin, Heilongjiang province, is finding her roots in a Chengdu village as well. Fascinated by agriculture, she saw promising prospects in rural areas and launched Gugu Farm in 2016. Over the past eight years, it has expanded to 75 mu (5 hectares) from 2.88 mu, generating revenue of over 780,000 yuan in 2024.

Benefiting from her team's efforts in applying advanced agricultural technologies, she hopes to popularize these techniques in villages, train more locals to use them, and increase their incomes while boosting the sustainable development of agriculture and other rural industries.

Overcoming hurdles

In Xinyu, Jiangxi province, Hu Meizhen, a 47-year-old villager with movement disabilities, is now prospering on e-commerce platforms. Having been restricted in the type of work open to her, at the age of 40 Hu learned how to type and use the internet, and opened a number of online shops.

In 2019, she established a company selling handmade Shuibei mahua (fried dough twists), as an inheritor of this local intangible cultural heritage snack.

Last year, the traditional snack brought her revenue exceeding 5 million yuan.

With her disabilities, Hu said she was "trapped at home" before. Family members were too protective of her and she rarely had the chance to explore the outside world and have social interactions. Also, as a woman she received more objections and less support when it came to starting a business.

However, e-commerce platforms have given Hu and her team of workers — 90 percent of whom also have disabilities — powerful wings to fly.

A number of women in Xinyu with severe disabilities have been given a new purpose in life by learning the skills to make Hu's products. She has also been giving free training lessons to empower more people with disabilities, helping over 500 of them run their own online shops.

Luo Ying is deputy secretary of the Rural Women Development Foundation, which has fostered thousands of rural women leaders since its establishment in 2013.

"Women are facing many harsh challenges in work and life when they become mothers. For rural women, we actually noticed that they are not restrained by their skills," she said.

"In many cases, they have no idea what they want and need, or what they can expect. If we can help them break down such constraints rooted in families and society, they have the chance to begin a new life," Luo added.

Hu, who values her participation in the Shanghai camp, is actively working to introduce her fried snacks to more places in China. Some of Hu's "sister" trainees at the camp are becoming her business partners and demonstrating combined "female power".

"Entrepreneurship is never an easy path, and it can be even harder for rural women, given challenges such as traditional attitude constraints, and the lack of resources and opportunities as well as inadequate support systems," said Janice Hu, China country head at UBS AG, at the camp.

However, she pointed out that female entrepreneurs have made remarkable achievements and shown huge potential. Reports show that in China, women make up 30 to 40 percent of entrepreneurs. In the e-commerce and internet sectors they account for 55 percent. On Forbes China's 2024 list of 100 Power Businesswomen, nearly 90 percent of the female entrepreneurs started their business from scratch.

"Women are not walking alone on the path of entrepreneurship, and boast a promising future," Hu said.

"In particular, we see female entrepreneurship in the countryside is often more warm and resilient, filled with a heartfelt love for the land and hometown. I believe that this sincerity will inspire them and carry them further."