Sexual discrimination in job advertisements?  Not possible nowadays, right?!  Not too quick to assume.

This interview by New York Times features a story on Chinese tech companies and their job ads against women.  Many tech job ads using women as the obsession object to boast the benefits of joining their companies, such as “meeting your goddess”, “[young female colleagues as] the late night benefits”, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGRbjaszeBg

The Human Rights Watch released a report “Only Men Need Apply”, reveals that gender discrimination and gender gaps in employment remains widespread, despite rapid economic growth created economic opportunities for women.  Government and private enterprise job ads often specify gender preference irrelevant to the nature of the positions. A study conducted among government job posts, discovered that nearly one in five job ads in 2018 limit the positions to “men only” or “men preferred”.  

Sexual objectification – prevailingly, women are treated as sexual objectives in job advertisement in China.  One job ad posted on the social media by one of the most influential online giants, Alibaba, stating that “finding a job equal to finding a woman”.  The slogan in the ad utilizes one Chinese character “?“ , which is a double entendre.  It can mean “do” what you want to “do” the most or “fuck” who you want to “fuck” the most.  Pairing the slogan with a picture of high heels and half down underwear, the meaning of the word is subject to the interpretation of the viewer.  Utilizing sexual derogatory concepts in hiring is not an isolated incident; rather, it’s a socially acceptable normal.

Gender-bias Requirement – Many jobs require women to have appareling appearance and certain physical attributes, such as height, voice, body shape, skin tone, which are irrelevance to the nature of the jobs.  I used to ask my colleagues in China why their job applications and CV have to include the applicant’s photo.  The answer is hilarious yet painful – the photo is to verify whether the applicant is “pleasant” to look at.  And of course, the application form includes a space to fill in your gender, marital status, family members.   Something that is illegal to request during a job application process.

Stereotypical Views – Discriminatory job advertisements reflect gender discrimination deeply rooted in Chinese culture in three areas.  Women are perceived as less physical, intelligent, psychological capable than men.  Therefore, many higher level or certain skilled positions request “male applicant only”.  Socially, there are many stereotypes framed on women to take on certain jobs while shine away from others, which greatly limit their career choices.  Once I was speaking to an industry peer about detecting discrimination issues during a social audit, I asked this male individual to share his thought about a factory posting a job ad specify hiring women sewing operator from the age of 18 to 30.”  He replied that “sewing worker is more suitable to be female.”  For someone working in the field of human rights and corporate social responsibility, his response almost choked me.  However, it dawned on me that gender based discrimination is a much more common situation than we imagine.

Being perceived with lack of commitment – another reason that women may be discriminated against in the hiring process can be the false perception of lack of commitment at work.  Women in China have been the primary source of child care.  As women entering into their prime child bearing age, companies fear that their female employees may be unable to fully commit to their jobs.  Other companies may specify women who are married with children, so that the companies do not need to pay for months of maternity leaves and benefits.

In summary, the report outlines several concerns in Chinese job ads:

Problems

1. Though Chinese laws ban discrimination in hiring, it lacks enactment, enforcement and definition what constitute gender discrimination
2. Authorities rarely penalize companies posting discriminatory contents on job ads
3. Extremely low compensation even if winning a court case (equivalent to USD 200), such a modest fine cannot serve as a deterrent to companies
4. Companies and individuals accept the gender discrimination as a social norm

Recommendations

Individuals:

– Stop accepting the gender-based discriminatory ads
– Fight back to the unacceptable social norm of using female as a sexual object
– Fight back to the social norm in your circle of influence

Enterprises:

– Create and review policies prohibiting all forms of gender based discrimination
– Reviewing hiring ads and procedures within your company to avoid gender (and other type of discrimination when recruiting
– Discuss with your suppliers, service providers, subcontractors and other stakeholders to share your value on gender-based discrimination

 Government:

– Revise laws and regulation to end discrimination in job hiring
– Provide a clear definition of gender discrimination
– Strengthen investigation of complaints of discriminatory acts in the workplace
 – Establish paternity leave to release the burden of child care on women only, which address many companies concern of hiring women fearing that their inability to contribute due to months of maternity leave.