context: Recent legislative efforts promoting gender equality sit against the backdrop of the plummeting birth rate and growing public attention to gender issues prompted by high-profile scandals. Though signifying progress, the new amendment might not fully address workplace discrimination potentially exacerbated by certain birth promoting policies. Legal protection for sexual harassment cases also stops short at implementation.
A draft amendment to Women’s Rights and Interests Protection Law was submitted to NPC Standing Committee for review on 20 Dec 2021, reports Caixin. This is the first major adjustment since the Law was implemented in 1992. It would provide the long-overdue legal definition of gender discrimination as well as strengthen women’s rights at home, in the workplace and against abuse and harassment. Highlights include
- banning workplace discrimination such as using marriage or family status as restricting criteria in recruitment or promotion
- monitoring workplace discrimination as part of labour security supervision
- clarifying a woman’s right to claim financial reimbursement for household contributions during divorce
- forbidding physical and non-physical abuse
- clarifying definitions and examples of sexual harassment
- strengthening employer’s responsibility in preventing sexual harassment
While outright discrimination is rarer, workplace discrimination is often covert and harder to tackle, says Li Ying 李莹 women’s protection NGO practitioner. For example, even though no longer explicitly stated, men can still be preferred in recruitment because of the perceived higher labour costs associated with hiring women, says Li.
As a result, policies to extend maternity leave in localities such as Shanghai could be counterproductive to encourage births since women are concerned about further discrimination and exclusion in the workplace, says Li Jia 李佳 Pangoal Institution Ageing Society Social Research vice-director. Therefore, aside from prohibiting measures, the root cause must be tackled through measures such as mandatory paternal leave, Li Ying stresses.