China's Gender Discrimination
As a young woman, I believed that it is a human right to demand what is right and proper. It’s hard to imagine living in an environment that only seeks equality for the opposite gender. Visualize yourself in an interview, and your recruiter asks, “How many boyfriends have you had before?” or, “How many men have you had sexual encounters with?” These are not the only hardships Chinese women are faced with.
According to How Chinese Nationalists Weaponized anti-China Accusations to Silence Feminists, critics are now accusing feminists as expressions of anti-China sentiment. President Xi Jinping has now embraced a nationalistic status, Weibo’s policies prohibiting content that are towards attacking the government. These new policies are prohibiting citizens to speak about violence against women and workplace discrimination. As stated by Lü Pin, “For them, feminism becomes a crime.”
For them believing inequality is a crime.
Based on the article, Gender Discrimination in Hiring Persists, China marked May 1st, 2020 as International Workers day, ending gender discrimination, said my Human Rights Watch. Can we really end gender discrimination? No. Just like any movement, it takes time. Chinese Law officially prohibits gender discrimination but does it stop it? According to Yaqui Wang, a Chinese researcher at Human Rights Watch, “The Chinese government claims it’s committed to gender equality in employment, but even its own hiring practices are still deeply discriminatory,”
The Chinese Government 2020 national civil service job list, about 11% of the postings are still for men. In 2017, it was about 13% Although there is small progress, most of the decrease of the overall percentage came from the postings by ministries. This most likely means that people are not hiring as much as before. Although small there are small victories for women and fellow feminists. There are official prohibitions of discrimination such as the Labor Law: protection of Women's Rights and Interest, the Employment Promotion Law, Provisions on Employment Service, and Employment Management. Another success was that “Since 2013, several women have brought successful court challenges over gender discrimination in job ads, but the compensation imposed on violators, in the low hundreds of United States dollars, was so inconsequential that it was not an effective deterrent.” Another victory was that those who are publishing discriminatory job ads face fines up to 50,000 yuan, which is $7,100.