Innovative approaches

Li said some key questions remain, including how payment should be arranged during such leave, how to prevent men from shifting all responsibilities for raising children to women and how to coordinate parents' eventual return to the job market and work.

More can be done to address these issues, she said.

Another promising approach is to promote flexible working schedules, Li said. "If a husband and a wife can stagger their working hours, they can resolve the conflict between work and home," she said.

Li Jia, deputy head of the aging society research center at Pangoal Institution, a Beijing-based public policy think tank, told China Business Journal that paternity leave is only a supplemental approach, and the core solution is to promote "integration of work and home", such as working from home.

"The shift also involves legal issues, such as how to draft contracts with homebound workers and how to protect the rights of both parties in this context," he added.

A guideline released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and eight other government departments in February 2019 banned any form of discrimination against women at work, including setting higher bars for or rejecting female candidates, and asking them to reveal their marital status or childbearing plans.

Li Na, from China University of Labor Relations, said more forceful and detailed laws against gender discrimination at work should be established.

"Existing regulations are too general," she said. "Gender discrimination can be very implicit, and we need stronger efforts and skills to detect it."