Starting from the early 1950s, the Chinese Government launched a campaign to encourage married women to work in order to reverse entrenched gender inequality. Government-subsidized daycare centers were established in factories and on farms so that mothers could devote themselves to a professional life.

Lu said that as a child, her mother, a farm worker, spent long hours picking cotton in the field. Lu was sent to a boarding kindergarten school and then transferred to a relative's home. She attributes her high anxiety and a sense of insecurity to that time of separation from her family.

Lin—who said that her mother never allowed her to have long hair when she was growing up because of the hassle of combing it—hopes her childhood misery would not be repeated with her son. When quitting her job, she decided that China didn't need an elite professional woman as much as her son needed a full-time mother. She told China Newsweek that her close relationship with her son has already paid off, because he is one of three best-performing kids in his kindergarten class. The other two are also being raised by stay-at-home mothers.

A national survey on women's social status in 2010 revealed that nearly 62 percent of men and 55 percent of women believed that "men belong to public life while women belong to the family," compared with 54 percent of men and 51 percent of women in 2000.

Nannies are also demanding more pay, leaving more professional women priced out of the job market.

Fang Ying, a lecturer at the Public Administration School of Guangzhou University, has been studying stay-at-home mothers as a social phenomenon since 2006. She told China Newsweek that before dropping out of the job market, these women tended to be at two ends of the pay scale: those holding high-income and demanding positions that leave almost no time and energy for motherhood, and those with dead-end low-income jobs whose families would be better off if mothers look after their children themselves rather than paying for childcare.

Before recently quitting her job at a software company, a woman surnamed Liu, who lives in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei Province, and gave birth to her child at the beginning of this year, earned a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan ($476). She told the locally published Chutian Gold News that she pays 300 yuan ($47.6) in commuting expenses, 300 yuan for lunch money and 2,000 yuan ($312) for a full-time nanny every month. "Keeping this job stopped being worthwhile," she said.

Challenges

Being a stay-at-home mother is not without its challenges. These women also have to fight stereotypes that they are lazy and irresponsible for not providing additional income or that they sit around all day with ample time on their hands to do whatever they please.

Yu Jianghui, a 28-year-old mother of a 2-year-old, has been a housewife since graduating from college. She told the Chongqing Morning Post that between cooking three meals for her son and babysitting him all day long, her only "me" time is during her son's two-hour afternoon nap.

"Professional women only have to give their best during the eight hours at work, while the role of a full-time caregiver keeps me busy every waking minute," Yu said.

Cao Hongpei, a marriage counselor, said that stay-at-home mothers should also learn how to relax and maintain self-learning by finding a hobby, joining a religious group or participating in charity work, all of which can enhance their sense of happiness.

Women's withdrawal from the workforce also brings financial stress on some families, especially middle-income ones. This pain is particularly acute for single-income families in China as income tax is levied on individuals rather than families.

Even worse, when stay-at-home mothers find their life boring or less useful to their children after they go to primary school, it is very difficult for them to return to their careers.

After leaving the workforce for six years, 30-year-old Yu Ma (a pseudonym), mother of a preschooler in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang Province, is desperate to return to her fashion designing career. However, she said that her paltry resume had landed her very few interview opportunities. "I feel more a professional in child care than in fashion. If I still cannot find a job, I plan to have a second child, which will buy me two more years to get professional certificates in designing," Yu told the locally published Qianjiang Evening News.

Zhaopin.com, one of China's leading job websites, conducted a survey on the career development of women of childbearing age. According to the survey, 82.36 percent of respondents believe it is difficult for stay-at-home mothers to return to the job market while 26.07 percent believe the difficulty is overwhelming.

More and more stay-at-home mothers are running online stores because of the flexible working hours. Wang Qun, a stay-at-home mother with a master's degree from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, has developed a hobby of making crafts together with her 3-year-old daughter into an online store selling home-made supplies, such as plasticine made of flour and food coloring.

"After all, I am bringing in extra money to make home life easier," Wang said.

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