When students getting ready to graduate this year went round the
job fairs hosted in the various universities in Xi'an, capital of
northwest China's Shaanxi Province, there was a shock for the
girls. Again and again they came up against a "men only" barrier to
recruitment.
A party of female students from the Shaanxi
University of Science and Technology in Hanzhong City made the
journey of some 400 km to the capital. But after visiting almost
every employment stand they found only disappointment. Those
responsible for recruitment would all too often only consider
applications from boys. Discrimination was particularly prevalent
in science and engineering. The girls spent several days in Xi'an.
They bought a bundle of entrance tickets at five yuan a time but in
the end they had nothing to show for all their hopes and
expectations.
"The areas in which women can map out a career and make a living
are becoming narrower and narrower," complained one girl college
student.
Reasons for saying no to women
Gender discrimination in recruitment is most serious in the
large stated-owned enterprises (SOEs). Here female applicants are
firmly turned away. By comparison, the practice is much less
evident in the private sector.
A member of staff with an SOE in northeast China explained, "It
is just in the nature of the enterprise. In our organization the
bulk of the work is not just sitting around in offices doing paper
work it is workshop based. Women are simply not suited to the
rigors of the shop floor and the hard physical work required in
operating machines together with the lifting and carrying involved.
In other words it is women's own physiological characteristics that
restrict their career opportunities."
In addition there is a view commonly held by sales and marketing
executives that they would be much more concerned about the
personal safety of women employees as the work involves frequent
business trips.
Then there is the belief that female recruits may soon get
married and neglect their work as they devote all their energies to
caring for family and child.
Students reject gender discrimination
In the eyes of many, such conspicuous gender discrimination in
recruitment and employment is seen as both unreasonable and unfair.
And what's more it runs counter to one of China's basic state
policies, that of gender equality.
"The phenomenon is caused by still deep-seated traditional
concepts that value men and belittle women," said a male student
with the surname Xiao from the Xi'an Institute of Finance and
Economics.
"Faced with increasing competition brought about by the market
economy, some enterprises only consider their own narrow interests
and reject female applicants. However they are missing the point
that women are indivisible from the future of society and represent
an essential part of corporate culture," said Xiao. "So the
enterprises who say no to women lack both foresight and humanity.
In terms of the wider interests of the enterprises this can only be
seen as a matter of regret."
A student surnamed Cui from the Xi'an Institute of Petroleum
said that some enterprises repeatedly claim that women are not fit
for heavy physical labor. But the reality is that heavy lifting,
carrying and loading are not always involved. Most of the work
today is no more strenuous than pressing buttons and throwing
switches or is just plain brainwork.
Although disappointed by encountering the "men-only" practices,
a few girl students didn't flinch. One girl from the Shaanxi Normal
University said to the recruiters, "I think I would make an
excellent employee and I would really like this job, why reject me
just because I am a woman?" Her courage and personality won the day
for in the end the unit broke with convention and she got the job.
So it is possible to buck the trend.
Students want stricter measures
Many college students consider gender discrimination to be
totally unreasonable and unfair but they can see there are no
measures in place to put an end to the practice.
A postgraduate student surnamed Xu from
suggested that local governments should introduce stringent rules
to stipulate a required ratio of women employees and take the
necessary steps to ensure the enterprises complied. Xu would also
like to see the various levels of government making use of economic
and administrative leverage through the use of preferential tax
polices to encourage the enterprises to recruit more women
employees.
Xu added, "The colleges and universities could also play a role
themselves by barring any units that won't employ girls from
participating in job fairs held on their premises. If a significant
number of female students failed to find jobs because their
colleges and universities weren't strict enough in shutting out
discriminatory recruitment then the authorities should impose
sanctions on these educational establishments. At the end of the
day, if government intervention together with action by the
colleges and universities were to be brought to bear on those
responsible for recruitment and if the educational authorities took
steps to monitor the actions taken by their educational
establishments, then this discrimination could become a thing of
the past."
The employment polices of foreign-funded enterprises stand out
in stark contrast. Here prospective employees find heartening words
of encouragement such as "Applications are welcomed equally from
men and women." and "No matter how old you are or what a kind of
educational record you have, the most important thing is whether
you are capable of doing the job." Here female students can find
fresh hope.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, March 6, 2004)