Gender equality still a challenge in China, says report

Gender equality is still a challenge in China as there is a large gap in the treatment of women in the country, said a media report.

In its report, European Times said that over 70 years down the line, Chinese women lag as compared to men in almost all arenas. Gender equality remains a distant goal and conditions are, in fact, getting worse.

The country once enjoyed one of the highest rates of women labour force participation in the world. Nearly 3 in 4 women worked as recently as 1990 but now that figure is just 61 per cent, as per the International Labour Organization.

There is a noticeable lack of women in managerial or leadership positions, European Times reported.

As per the World Economic Forum (WEF), only 17 per cent of senior managers, officials and legislators in China are women. Then the official retirement age for women in China is at least 5 years earlier than men, creating more financial uncertainty for them, said the report.

The report further said that nowhere is the gender gap more apparent than in Chinese politics. In 70 years, neither a single woman has been appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest governing body, nor has any woman held the presidency. Also, none of the 31 provincial-level governments is led by a woman. In more than 70 years, only six women were members in the wider 25-member Politburo.

Notably, the WEF ranks China 78th in terms of the political involvement of women.

The report highlighted the country's one-child policy and said that China's controversial One-Child Policy and a cultural bias towards a male child have been cited as the main reasons behind this discrepancy.

The policy, introduced in the late 1970s, was meant to slow down China's rapid population growth. The now-defunct policy has attracted wide criticism for encouraging gender-selective and forced abortions in this largely patriarchal society. Now the country has an estimated 31 million "surplus" men, European Times reported.

Yet, Chinese women often accept marriage on unfavourable terms, driven by the stigma of being called "sheng-nu" or "leftover women", the report added.

Now, as fears grow about the country's fast-ageing population and shrinking workforce, President Xi Jinping is calling upon women to embrace their "unique role" in the family and "shoulder the responsibilities of taking care of the old and young, as well as educating children", European Times reported.

As per the Human Rights Watch, in 2018, nearly 20 per cent of the Chinese national civic service jobs posted included requirements such as "men only," "men preferred," or "suitable for men."

Even at home, women have been dealt a rough blow as a new divorce law tramples upon their chances of owning property after marriage even as the country goes through a property boom, as per the report.

The marriage rate has fallen to the lowest point since Xi came to power and the birth rate has dropped to an unprecedented level in the country's 70-year history.

In Beijing in 2017, authorities reported one divorce for every two marriages. Chinese women have become more proactive in protesting for their rights, too.

Inspired by the #MeToo activism overseas, many street protests and social media campaigns for greater rights have been held. But all such activities meet with swift censorship. The MeToo movement's hashtag on China's popular microblogging website Weibo was removed soon after it started gaining traction, the report noted.

China's tennis star Peng Shuai case was probably the most explosive under China's #MeToo movement, which attracted global attention despite an intense government crackdown on activism.

On November 2, Shuai shocked social media by revealing in a social media post that former Politburo Standing Committee member and vice-premier Zhang Gaoli forced her into a 3-year sexual relationship. But her testimony was removed from social media within minutes of her posting and she herself disappeared from the public eye for weeks, the report added.

( With inputs from ANI )