More than 80 per cent of full-time female family carers in Macau want to return to the workforce, but many believe they face significant barriers, including age, outdated academic qualifications, skills or professional credentials, and concerns about balancing employment with family responsibilities, according to a survey released by the Women’s General Association of Macau (known as Fu Luen in Cantonese) yesterday.
The findings were presented at a press conference at the Family Service Centre on Rua da Barca. Speakers included Legislative Assembly member and Fu Luen Vice-Chairwoman Wong Kit Cheng, Vice-President Loi I Weng, Policy Research Division Supervisor Ip Weng Hong, and researcher Chan Lap Chu.
The survey, conducted between September and October, collected 672 questionnaires and included 16 in-depth interviews with women aged 18 and above. Nearly 70 per cent of the respondents were aged between 26 and 45, and most of them held undergraduate or postgraduate degrees.
The findings showed that nearly 40 per cent of the respondents spent more than four hours a day on family care, while more than half shouldered most or almost all of their family-care responsibilities. Around 15 per cent were responsible for caring for both their children and their own parents or parents-in-law. Meanwhile, about 40 per cent said they shared care duties equally with their husbands or partners.
According to the findings, family responsibilities had also affected women’s career development. Nearly 45 per cent said they had chosen jobs with more stable working hours but fewer promotion opportunities or lower salaries. More than 30 per cent had given up further education or training, 20 per cent had turned down promotion opportunities, and nearly 25 per cent had left the workforce because of family-care duties.
The survey and interviews also highlighted a gap between women’s willingness to work and their ability to re-enter the labour market. Fu Luen said the employment environment remained insufficiently supportive of full-time family carers, particularly women, creating a situation in which they wanted to work but found it difficult to secure employment. Such an environment could also make women who were still employed more concerned that marriage and having children might affect their career development, according to the findings.
The main difficulties identified by the respondents were heavy workloads and work pressure, financial pressure, and a lack of personal time. They particularly hoped for more flexible working hours and family-related leave, as caring for children and elderly family members often involved unexpected situations, such as illness.
5 policy recommendations
To address the challenges, Fu Luen put forward five policy recommendations, calling for coordinated action by the government, businesses, and the wider community.
The first proposal is to establish a cost-sharing mechanism among the government, social organisations, and businesses, while improving the implementation of Macau’s Framework Law of Family Policy (Law No.6/94/M). Fu Luen suggests setting up a dedicated fund or providing incentives to encourage employers to introduce family-friendly measures, including flexible working hours, hourly leave, and family-care leave. Such arrangements would allow employees to respond to unexpected family needs without having to leave their jobs or sacrifice career opportunities.
The second proposal focuses on strengthening community-based care services. Fu Luen recommends extending subsidised childcare services, currently aimed at infants aged up to three years, to cover children up to the age of six, while reducing fees and increasing child allowances. It also suggests considering a tiered allowance system to provide greater support to larger families. For elderly care, it calls for improvements to district-based services, including more day-care and residential care places, as well as subsidies for age-friendly facilities, to ease the burden on family caregivers.
Third, Fu Luen proposes improving the regulation and recruitment of domestic helpers under the Non-resident Workers Law. It calls for broader and more accessible legal recruitment channels, and suggests considering the employment of domestic helpers with relevant childcare or elderly-care qualifications, drawing on practices in Hong Kong. The aim would be to provide families with more suitable care support while ensuring that the employment of domestic helpers is properly regulated.
The fourth recommendation is to establish a transition platform to help women return to employment. Fu Luen suggests expanding the sectors and job opportunities covered by the Women’s Career Relaunch Programme, while providing career assessments, psychological support, and job-matching services. These measures would help women who had spent time away from the workforce identify suitable career paths, rebuild their confidence, and reconnect with employers.
The fifth proposal calls for more comprehensive skills retraining. Fu Luen recommends providing subsidised training courses linked to recognised professional qualifications, alongside flexible online learning and micro-credential programmes. It also suggests monitoring participants’ re-employment progress and employers’ uptake of the training, to assess whether the courses are effectively helping women return to work.
Wong and Loi said the survey’s findings would help Fu Luen better understand women’s difficulties and formulate feasible proposals for the government. They stressed that cooperation among the government, businesses, and the community was needed to shift family care from being regarded primarily as women’s responsibility to a shared social responsibility.
(From left to right) Ip Weng Hong, supervisor of the Policy Research Division of the Women’s General Association of Macau; Loi I Weng, vice-president of the association; Wong Kit Cheng, vice-chairwoman of the association; and Chan Lap Chu, researcher of the association’s Policy Research Division, pose at yesterday’s press conference at the association’s Family Service Centre on Rua da Barca. – Photo: Sherwin Hng
