Gender equality in spotlight on 100th Women's Day
- Source: Global Times
- [02:23 March 09 2010]
- Comments
Hostesses of the Zhuang ethnic minority (in red) pose Monday with other hostesses at Tianamen Square as delegates attend a session of the ongoing NPC. Photo: AFP
By Kang Juan
Despite their rising status in the society in recent years, Chinese women are still struggling to crack through a glass ceiling in hiring, promotion and marriage, while a proportion of men in the country are unwilling to acknowledge this is the case.
Half a century after former leader Mao Zedong said women can hold up half the sky, the socio-economic gap with men has greatly narrowed. Women are now empowered with equal rights in elections, heritage, education and employment, and many have reached elite status in politics, business and academic circles.
According to statistics released by the Xinhua News Agency on Sunday, the number of female employees in rural and urban areas had reached 359 million by 2008, account-ing for 46.4 percent of the total employment nationwide. The proportion of women has exceeded men in industries such as education, culture and arts, health care and sports.
The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women's Advancement released last week showed that 73.2 percent of women surveyed on the Chinese mainland perceived themselves as holding the household's purse strings. The proportion is even higher in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
While the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day was recognized Monday, the new figures prompted some men to question what it is that Chinese women seek beyond socio-economic equality, and some called for the establishment of a Men's Day on March 9 to highlight male rights and interests.
Zhang Lixi, president of the China Women's University and a professor of women's studies, said many people take the progress made as evidence that female liberation has finished in China, but, in fact, the glass ceiling for women has never been broken.
Invisible gender discrimination still exists in employment. Research by MyCOS, an occupational consultancy, shows that about 21 percent of China's prospective female college graduates this year had signed initial work contracts by the end of February, much lower than the ratio of almost 30 percent by their male counterparts. The statistics were based on an online survey of more than 60,000 college students who will graduate in July.
Meanwhile, official figures show women still struggle to climb the career ladder, especially in politics. At present, there are eight female state leaders, 230 occupy leadership roles at the ministerial and vice-ministerial/provincial level, and there are 670 mayors and deputy mayors in over 600 cities.
However, the numbers are proportionally small, and most female officials take deputy, nominal, or marginal positions, the Nanfang Daily reported Monday. There have been four female provincial party chiefs/governors since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Sun Chunlan, party chief of Fujian Province, is the only sitting female official taking such a provincial position, the newspaper said.
According to a preview of the Asia-Pacific Regional Human Development Report on Gender, which is due to be released today by United Nations organs in China, only 8 percent of heads of ministries or commissions are women in China.
Women account for more than half – as much as 65 percent – of the rural labor force, but constitute only 15 percent of village committees, with only 1 to 2 percent in decision-making positions, the report said.
Meanwhile, China still suffers a disproportionate sex ratio at birth, which had been contributing to China's "missing women" phenomenon.
In a major report of gender equality, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) found that Asia had the highest male-female sex ratio at birth in the world, with 119 boys born for every 100 girls, far exceeding the global world average of 107 boys for every 100 girls.
