The pros and cons of China's market economy for women - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

China's market economy has brought pros and cons to the women, says author Zhang Lijia of the bestseller Lotus: A Novel, on prostitution in China, to the BBC.“I think women have shouldered most of the cost and burden during the transition from a planned economy to the market economy,” she says. She is currently working on a book on the left-behind children in China.

The BBC:

One critic of the reforms, social commentator and author Zhang Lijia, says that China’s shift from a planned economy to a market economy model has brought changes and opportunities for both men and women – particularly urban and educated women. But it has also brought setbacks, including job losses. 

“I think women have shouldered most of the cost and burden during the transition from a planned economy to the market economy,” she says. “For example, [in] ailing state-owned enterprises, women are always [the] first to be let off.” 

Zhang has personal experience of the changes that she wrote about it in her book, Socialism is Great. Growing up in Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province, she started working at a missile factory at the age of 16. The village she lived in served as a residential area for a local machinery factory, which was run by the Ministry of Aerospace Industry. 

“They had a rule that women [of] about 45 years old were let off from my worker unit,” she says, suggesting that this was a blanket rule in place at the factory. 

She thinks the shift to the market economy has allowed more businesses to get away with unscrupulous practices towards female workers in China. “Before, there was this kind of Maoist-style gender equality. Now it’s being replaced by open sexism,” she says. 

Zhang goes on to say that “it’s just so much harder to get jobs because they make extra demands… some companies will refuse to hire women of child-bearing age. And sometimes if a woman gets pregnant, they will sack them. Sometimes they will force women to write that ‘in the next ten years I promise I will not have children.’” 

Recent figures show that women in China’s cities now earn 67.3% of what men make. Meanwhile, for women in the countryside, it’s even less at 56%.

More at the BBC.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on political change at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.
 

Young women take gender discrimination to court - Zhang Lijia

+Lijia Zhang 

Officially gender discrimination is banned, but until recently that law was not enforced. That is changing now women take the offenders to court, and get their legal rights, writes author Zhang Lijia on her weblog. She discusses the cases of Huang Rong and Cao Ju.

Zhang Lijia:

Last November, a Hangzhou court ruled that the culinary school had violated (Huang´s) right to equal employment and must pay her 2,000 yuan (HK$2,500) in compensation for mental distress. Though the sum was less than the 30,000 yuan Cao received, this ruling was significant as the award was made by the court, rather than in an out-of-court settlement, as in Cao’s case. 

Sex discrimination is widespread in China. According to a survey by the All-China Women’s Federation in 2011, nearly 92 per cent of female students said they had experienced gender discrimination in employment. One 2010 survey conducted by the China University of Political Science and Law discovered that, during recruiting, some 69 per cent of employers had gender requirements. 

The vast majority of victims of gender discrimination keep silent. I am delighted that young women like Huang and Cao have had the courage to break that silence. It is risky; if their real identities are exposed, they’ll probably never get a job in China again. In addition, it is expensive, the process is long, the outcome uncertain and the legal system isn’t geared to cope with such cases. 

Sex discrimination is rooted in gender inequality, which is ingrained in Chinese culture. Baby girls are not as welcome as baby boys, and girls often have to get better grades in school to be accepted into university. This unfair treatment continues into the workplace. These recent lawsuits come as China witnesses a rise in women’s rights activism. In November 2013, 10 university students, wearing giant paper pants over their winter coats, protested in front of a local government building in Wuhan against invasive gynaecological examinations imposed on women applying for civil service jobs. Earlier that year, 20 women across the country shaved their heads in protest at discrimination in university admissions standards. 

Since December 2013, dozens of female university students from various cities have written to their local authorities and labour bureaus to report job advertisements which they suspect were examples of sex discrimination. 

I applaud such activities. Compared with the older generation, these educated young women are more aware of international norms. They are internet-savvy and know how to use modern technology to get in touch with like-minded people and seek help. 

Huang told me she wouldn’t have made it this far without the help and support from many women, almost all strangers, who share her interest in promoting women’s rights. Among them was Cao, the other plaintiff, who not only funded Huang’s legal costs but also organised an online petition in support of her action. 

Huang’s case has attracted a fair amount of attention in both domestic and international media, which is a welcome development. Hopefully, it will make people more aware of gender discrimination, make employers think twice about excluding women applicants without sound reasons, and encourage more women who suffer sex discrimination to put up a fight as well.

More at Zhang Lijia´s weblog.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more female speakers at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

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