Advancing Women's Rights in China
Pressing Trends: Advancement of Women’s Rights in Post-2008 China
This article has been produced by the efforts of the following team members:
Louis-Claude Perrault-Carré – Team Leader for China-Industry
Overall, there seems to be growing discussion of women’s roles and rights in China over the past few years. According to Yang Lizhu, journalist for the Global Times, an English language Chinese newspaper, “Young Chinese women are doing things…differently to generations before: not getting married by 27, excelling in unconventional careers and prioritizing creativity or risk over security and wealth. There is a definite emerging willingness, if not desire, to stand out.”
On January 30, 2015, Wang Min, deputy permanent representative to the United Nations for China argued that the international community should work harder to promote gender equality, as well as the “…full participation of women in decision-making and equal rights education, health and employment.”
There is still a gender imbalance that can be felt around the country, caused mainly by the One Child Policy. Families are restricted in the amount of children they can have; inequalities between genders forced many families to prefer male children rather than female children. The results of this policy can be seen in the imbalance in numbers of males and females across the country. The One Child Policy has been relaxed over the past few years, but local officials still enforce central governmental quotas very strictly. Practices of forced abortions and sterilizations are not as common, but still exist. Freedom House notes that “societal pressures favoring boys, have led to sex-selective abortion and a general shortage of females, exacerbating the problem of human trafficking.”
Freedom House also notes the significance of restricting freedom of assembly and association in China – detaining and harassing a disproportionate amount of female petitioners and protesters, who are subject to physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.
The workforce in China is made up of 45% women, but the average female salary is 74% less than a male’s wage. Employment rates of identically qualified college graduates favours male candidates by 8%.
Even though progress is slow and incremental, it is still occurring – for example, a new anti-domestic violence law was drafted in November 2014. Although this draft has been criticized for providing a very narrow definition of ‘domestic violence’, it is still a step forward.
The growth of China over the past few decades has seen the development and rise of the middle class. Many people have also moved to the cities, and there are many problems in terms of population control and pollution created by these major shifts. The role of the woman has definitely changed, as can be seen by the statistics provided above, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The issue is not simply that of gender inequality, but also of gender imbalance caused by this inequality. If the government takes on more responsibility to enact laws and policies protecting women’s right, things as basic as protection against domestic violence, workplace equality, etc…the present inequalities will be mitigated and balanced.
The country already seems to be making progress, therefore foreign companies perhaps need to provide locals with an example to work with. Hiring men and women, paying and treating them equally is a good way to begin; perhaps lessening the animosity felt against foreign companies in the country.
