 |
| Zhang Lijia |
 |
| Zhang Lijia |
|
| Zhang Lijia |
S: What would you say are the opportunities and challenges of being a (female) writer in China today?
China is the seventh heaven for writers and journalists. Like any society that is going through such rapid social transformation, there’s always tension and drama – these are exactly what writers and journalists seek after.It is difficult to be a writer anywhere in the world. In China, most writers have to deal with the extra challenge of facing censorship. Right now, the publishing and writing fields are still male-dominated. Internationally Chinese women writers are almost invisible. This is another reason that I want to keep writing.
S: One of the areas that you talk about in your public speaking is the changing role of women in Chinese society. What would you say are the main challenges facing women today?
LJ: The main challenges facing women today is the deeply rooted male chauvinism and the growing gender inequality. Market economy has placed women in an unfavourable position. But I am optimistic because women have taken the matter into their own hands, as reflected in the growing activism since 2012. It would have been much better if such activism is tolerated by the authorities.
S: What do you have planned next?
More in WAGIC.LJ: I am writing a literary non-fiction on China’s left behind children. Coming from a journalist background, I found fiction writing extremely challenging. In this non-fiction book, I plan to apply some fictional techniques I’ve learnt, such as setting the scene, good dialogue, sense of suspense and character development, which, hopefully, will make the book more engaging and literary.
 |
| Zhang Lijia |
Zhang pointed to figures released by the UN in 2015 that reveal a growing income gap between men and women in post-Mao China. The report found that between 1990 and 2010, average urban income for women as a percentage of that of men had dropped from 77.5% to 67.3%. For women outside the major cities, the figure was as low as 56%.
“When China shifted from the planned economy to the market economy, women shouldered too much of the burden and cost,” Zhang said. “When the state-owned enterprises laid off workers, women were always the first to be let off. And it is much harder for middle-aged women to find re-employment.
Zhang also pointed to a resurgence in pre-Maoist values that ascribed strict limits to the role – and value – of women in Chinese society.
More at Sea Globe.“I think some of the old attitudes towards women, which place women as inferior to men, resurfaced,” she said. “At workplaces, Mao-style gender equality has been replaced by open sexism… Sometimes they refuse to hire women of a child-bearing age or sack them after they become pregnant.”
 |
| Zhang Lijia at the BBC |
Zhang commented that since the Cultural Revolution, changes may have enabled corporate growth, but haven’t done much for social welfare or social equality: “Deng Xiaoping’s reforms afforded some opportunities for educated, urban women. But the market economy has undermined gender equality. The government retreated from its role and let the market take over, but the market doesn’t always treat women kindly. Women are bearing the brunt of the shift from the planned economy to the free-market economy: women have to attain higher grades to be admitted to universities, women are the ones who are laid off first, women over forty-five are sacked from companies, companies can stipulate that they want only young and pretty women”.
Zhang’s research showed that prostitutes are not just vulnerable to violent men, but also to police harassment and abuse. Although prostitution is considered a social evil, Zhang added, “it’s placed under administrative law, not criminal law, so it’s dealt with through fines and sanctions. The police interpret the laws themselves. They beat up the women and extract ‘confessions’, put them in detention with no legal representation. They have leeway for corruption, abuse and a violation of the women’s rights”. Meanwhile, she argued, measures to curb prostitution “don’t tackle fundamental social problems. The root of the problem is the growing gender gap and a thin social safety net”.
Will gender equality improve in this fascinating and rapidly transforming country? When it comes to change driven from the top down, Lijia Zhang isn’t hopeful: “Female political participation is low – women make up less than a quarter of the National People’s Congress and well under a fifth of the Standing Committee. And the top level of government is just one big boys’ club”.More in the TLS.
 |
| +Lijia Zhang |
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.
 |
| +Lijia Zhang |
But Huang was determined. “I wanted to go ahead (with the court case) even though I didn’t have the money for a lawyer,” says Huang, who gets by with piecemeal jobs and still hasn’t found full time employment. A friend introduced her to Cao Ju who offered not only useful advice and encouragement but also some funds to cover her legal costs. “There’s no better way to spend the money,” says Cao Ju. “Squeezing money out of the court case was not my intention. Fighting against sex discrimination is.” Cao also organized an online petition to rally support for Huang. So far, more than 400 women from all over the country have signed it.
Again with friends’ help, Huang found Nanjing-based lawyer Xu Ying who was willing to take on her case. “To me, the case is blatant sex discrimination,” says Xu. “Even the recruiter’s excuses rest on gender stereotypes: women are not suited to travel or they’re too weak to carry a suitcase. The only thing that matters here should be the applicant’s ability, not the person’s sex.”
The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promotion of Employment, adopted in 2007, includes explicit language forbidding gender discrimination in hiring and noting that, “When an employing unit recruits female workers, it shall not have such provisions as restrict female workers from getting married or bearing a child included in the labor contract.” The law also states that a job-seeker has the right to sue the employer in cases of gender discrimination. Why then have there been so few of such cases in China?
“Generally speaking, people in China are not very aware of their legal rights,” explains lawyer Xu. “There’s no tradition of suing an employer. And of course, going to court is expensive, time consuming, and the whole legal system doesn’t seem to be geared to cope with such cases.”
Indeed, it took well over a year for a Beijing court just to accept Cao’s case. It refused the case at first, citing a lack of precedent. Huang fared a little better. After back and forth negotiations with a Hangzhou court, the hearing took place on September 10, with the accused absent. The verdict is due in December.
A man from the Oriental Cooking School’s HR department, who refused to disclose his identity, said there was no need to appear for the hearing as the court will make a correct judgment according to facts. “Everything the plaintiff said was a lie. Sex discrimination? If so, why are there so many women teachers working at our school?”
Given the difficulties of filing a lawsuit, some have sought other methods to tackle gender discrimination. On December 26, 2013, eight female students from different cities in China wrote to their local governments to report job listings they suspected were discriminatory. Altogether, they found 41 such cases. 80% of jobs advertised were white-collar jobs that were not physically demanding, offered mostly by privately-owned enterprises. The women received hardly any response from the authorities. But young women from across the country continued the reports and they have gradually drawn more responses from the authorities.
The reports and lawsuits take place at a time when China is witnessing an increase in women’s rights activism.
In November 2013, ten university students, wearing giant paper pants over their winter coats, staged a demonstration in front of a local government building in Wuhan to protest invasive gynecological exams imposed on women applying for civil servant jobs. Earlier that year, 20 women across the country shaved their heads, silently voicing their anger against discrimination in admissions standards at universities. Some universitiesset higher standards for entrance examination scores for female students. In Beijing, three women dressed up in blood-stained wedding gowns to protest domestic violence; in Guangzhou, women queued in front of a toilet to protest against the lack of public toilets for women.More in ChinaFile. 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 our recently updated list.
