Women in China are calling for more representation in door-to-door maintenance, yet those already in the field continue to face societal discrimination
When Wang Yiran (pseudonym), the co-founder of Shenzhen-based feminist collective FeyGal, refurbished a new house by herself, she’d been proud: she had planned the entire renovation, taught herself to use power tools, and cut and moved wood panels half her weight. But when faced with more technical tasks, such as the positioning of electrical sockets, she had no choice but to hire outside help. Without having agreed on a price beforehand, the repairman who arrived asked for an exorbitant fee. “Because I was the only person at home at that time, I had to obediently pay,” she tells TWOC. When the man left a trail of muddy shoeprints behind him, she didn’t feel comfortable voicing a complaint.
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