Fu Lupeng, 33, from Southeast China's Fujian Province, once worked as a waiter and shopping guide. In 2021, after she learned Min Sisters domestic-service company provided free training in maternal- and infant-care skills, and that the company helped women find jobs in the domestic-service industry, she decided to try her hand at being a domestic worker. 

Her decision proved to be life changing, as Fu evolved from a lowly paid worker into a highly respected senior maternity matron. Her income also greatly increased. 

Nowadays, a growing number of young women, like Fu, are entering the domestic-service industry. And they are injecting a new dynamism into the sector. 

Min Sisters, established by Fujian Women's Federation, is dedicated to providing domestic-service-skills training and employment assistance to women, including unemployed women in cities and rural, migrant women. 

With 25 years of experience in the domestic-service sector, Min Sisters has trained more than 100,000 people, and helped more than 150,000 women secure gainful employment. 

In recent years, women's federations, at all levels across Fujian Province, have been committed to delivering women-performed domestic services to residents in urban and rural communities. 

Their efforts have included organizing training programs involving domestic services, launching relevant recruitment drives, and providing a diverse array of domestic services, from child- and elder-care to cleaning and home-appliance maintenance. 

The federations have set up domestic-service booths within community hubs, such as women's homes and children' homes, and in turn have extended the reach of high-quality services to the public. Focused on services essential to households, the federations have organized training sessions in communities and villages, and they have provided online courses to help domestic workers improve service quality. 

The federations have also established volunteer teams of women to conduct public-welfare activities, such as organizing parent-child activities and providing guidance on family education and parenting styles. The volunteers have also been providing care services to special groups, including the disabled and the elderly. 

To encourage more women to find employment or start businesses in the domestic-service sector, the federations have organized publicity activities and skills training to benefit unemployed women, stay-at-home mothers, and women who are their family's main income earners, in villages and resettled communities. 

Efforts have also been made to inspire and guide women college and university graduates to become engaged in the domestic-service sector, and even open online or offline community-domestic-service stores. 

In September 2023, Fujian Women's Federation's Family Care Service Center organized the first training course aimed at cultivating domestic-service managers, expected to open Min Sisters domestic-service stations in communities, to realize the efficient matching of services with residents' needs. 

Min Sisters has not only provided skills training and employment support to unemployed women and rural migrant women, it has also broadened the outreach of domestic-service outlets and enhanced the spectrum of domestic services offered within communities. Thus, it has enhanced people's sense of fulfillment, happiness and security. 

Photos from Fujian Women's Federation

(Women of China English Monthly July 2024)

Editor: Wang Shasha