WUNRN
November 10, 2008
CHINA - WORKPLACE SEX BIAS &
MATERNITY ISSUES
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Whether
to become a mother is a tough question facing many women in China, amid
increasing gender discrimination in the workplace |
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By DING WENLEI |
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JOB WANTED: The global
economic downturn makes it even harder for female graduates to find a job in
China's sex-biased job market. The picture shows a job fair in Nanjing City,
Jiangsu Province While the 10th National Women's
Congress revealed a cheering 45 percent of China's employed population is
female, many women still face discrimination. Female employees often suffer
gender discrimination and married women face the dilemma of losing their jobs
if they have children. The grim reality that 2008 could be
the first year of less than double-digit GDP expansion in China since 2002
amid a global economic downturn, weighs heavily on the job market. In
addition, a string of employment laws and regulations that became effective
as of January 1, which aim to better protect employee rights, will add labor
costs to employers and could restrain them from offering more jobs. A large number of college graduates
from the past two summers have not found a job. In November, they will be
joined in the search for work by more than 6 million new graduates, making it
harder still for female graduates to find work in China's sex-biased job
market. Surveys conducted by colleges and
women's federations indicate a growing number of women now consider
retreating from the job market in favor of staying at home once they are
married or pregnant, although they still occupy a small portion. "The question is whether it's
a happy personal choice for most of them," said Song Yushui, a judge in
the People's Court in Beijing's Haidian District and also a deputy to the
National Women's Congress. "Whatever the choice, be it to go home or
not, or to be a mother or not, is acceptable in a society much more tolerant
with diversified lifestyles." Widespread discrimination Employers are reluctant to hire
young women largely because they might later demand paid maternity leave and
because employers are also required to shoulder some birth-related medical
fees, said Xia Yinlan, an expert on marriage and family-related laws. Job discrimination against women is
widespread in China. A survey by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social
Security conducted across 62 cities last year concluded that 67 percent of
employers make explicit unfavorable requirements against women in their job
descriptions or prohibit pregnancy during the contract term, and 80 percent
of women graduates have encountered gender discrimination in finding a job. It is stipulated in the Law on
Protection of Women's Rights and Interests that employers cannot fire female
employees because of marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave or breastfeeding,
and the Labor Contract Law also has similar prohibitions. However, many employers evade these
stipulations by forcing female employees out of the workplace. In some cases,
pregnant women have been demoted and eventually pushed into quitting. China's
incomplete social security system and a lack of social responsibility on the
part of many employers are the roots of the problem, according to Ye Jingyi,
a professor at the Law School of Peking University. At present, 60 percent of companies
have participated in China's birth insurance scheme for paying employers'
birth-related medical fees. Xia proposed that the government make birth
insurance coverage compulsory for employers and make insurance participation
an important factor in certain assessments of employers, such as corporate
social responsibility, or a standard for rewards and punishment. Both Song and Xia called for
greater social consciousness of the fact that women give birth to babies not
for themselves but for society to make progress through reproduction of labor
power. Yet, overprotection of women's
rights could scare employers and force them to plan evasions, thus affecting
stable employment for women, said Ye. "Women shoulder social
responsibility by giving birth to babies, but we should not leave the whole
burden of helping them to companies by legislation," said Ye. As
compensation, the government could offer tax deductions or other preferential
policies to companies that employ more women than the average, while for
companies that employ fewer women than a required ratio, the government could
demand that they shoulder social responsibility in some other way, Ye
suggested. As to other concerns that female
staff might be unable to do regular overtime work or take frequent business
trips when they have babies, Xia said there are already good solutions in Western
countries. She gave the example of the United Nations International
Children's Emergency Fund, which allows female employees to bring children
with them on business trips. Taking babies with them on business
trips might be a luxury for Chinese women at present, but having special baby
rooms at the office was at one time a common practice. In fact, in the past
almost all factories and institutes had their own nursery. Career break For women who choose to take a
break from work after having children, Xia advised they limit the length of
their leave to avoid endangering their careers. Chinese career women may envy their
counterparts in European countries, Xia said, citing the example of a judge
from Germany she met. The judge said she was allowed up to one-and-a-half
years of paid maternity leave and the court offered training courses upon her
return to help her catch up with changes in her field. "It's a different situation in
China," Xia said. "Unlike European countries where a shortage of
high-end labor and negative population growth rates are headaches for their
governments, China adopts a birth-control policy and has witnessed huge
changes in all fields and growing competition in the job market." Xia called for the liberation of
women from housework to allow professional females to focus on their careers.
She proposed families pay somebody to do housework for them, or share chores. She also advocated including the
value of housework in GDP calculations in order to give housework a value. Song believes there should be
division of labor between men and women, at least within individual families.
A woman can stay at home if her family's financial conditions permit and she
feels content with the mothering life, but she should be prepared to return
to work if her husband needs her support, Song said. Ji Pingping, a successful ballerina
with the Shanghai Ballet and deputy to the congress, said she was lucky
because she was born in a city and a family where women enjoy high status and
respect and meet fewer obstacles to success than women in remote areas.
Calling herself a traditional Chinese woman, Ji said she would never give up
having a baby though it could sacrifice her career as a dancer. She said she hoped women's
federations encourage career women to have babies for the sake of social
harmony and development, while offering as much help as possible to mothers. |
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