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Paper short abstract

Based on interviews with 31 Chinese lesbian mothers, this article examines how reproductive and domestic responsibilities are negotiated under restrictive ART policies, showing how divisions of labour both reproduce and contest heteronormative, genetic, and legal norms in contemporary China.

Paper long abstract

Since 2016, children born out of monogamous marriage in China can apply for permanent residence registration. Further, since 2024, all provincial governments in mainland China have included assisted reproductive technology (ART) services in health insurance to promote fertility. However, couples still need a Chinese marriage certificate that only available to heterosexual couples and proof of infertility to use this service. Therefore, only heterosexual couples who are diagnosed as infertile have legal access to ART services. And yet, these policy changes do offer Chinese non-heterosexual people a greater degree of flexibility to pursue parenthood through ARTs.

Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with 31 Chinese lesbians who are, or plan to become, mothers, this article explores how their responsibilities are negotiated, divided and viewed during different stages of forming families. I analyse their division of roles from two perspectives: 1) Binary gendered patterns that echo heteronormativity. 2) Patterns based on making meaning of genetic relatedness. Across these dimensions, I theorise Chinese lesbian mothers’ divisions of reproductive and domestic responsibilities as demonstrating their effort to impose ‘checks and balances’ to manage what they and other family members, including contract marriage gay husbands and same-sex partners, give and receive in return. Their divisions of responsibilities manifest efforts to align with ideas of the ‘normal’ family and to protect their interests in the face of uncertain futures. Their reflections on internal divisions of labour, therefore, both reinforce and challenge Chinese dominant discursive and legal system surrounding reproduction and family.