My brief response to HRW's report "Gender Discrimination in Job Advertisements in China"

HRW’s report has provided plenty of recommendations to various stakeholders for promoting gender equality in workspaces. This report highlights government’s obligation to eliminate gendered violation and improve gender equality through law enforcement and regulations in particular. 

I briefly add some specific recommendations from the perspective of how to build up a gender friendly working environment, and how to empower working women self-autonomy and capability. Some ideas have been covered by HRW report on macro level.

First, considering the low awareness on gender equality in private sectors in China, there are lots of measures to be taken by companies. Such as, 

1. Introduce explicit anti-sexual harassment provision and regulations into staff training, and make gender equality-related documents available to every staff member.

2. Set up specific section or office within the company to deal with sexual harassment and gendered violation related complaints. 

3. Train company management staffs on gender equality and anti-gender discrimination. We often see gender equality training is set up for working women only rather than higher management and men, which targets wrong audiences. 

4. Provide platforms and resources for working women to do self-organizing and capability building.

NGOs and civil groups should further initiate legal cases against these companies who publish gender biased job advertisements. 

For NGOs, Chinese and transnational companies, government and UN bodies, they should provide platforms and resources for working women’s self-expression and self-organizing. This is a key mechanism for working women to gain structural support in developing self-confidence and autonomy in the working environment. Therefore, they will have the initiative power to fight against gendered discrimination and sexual violations.

Last year, when I visited the NYU, speaking with film scholars. A Chinese female professor discussed the gendered problems in the filmmaking and intellectual communities. She reminds me: we are in a gendered biased culture, and discrimination is our daily life, nothing new. However, we have to ask ourselves today, why do we still allow the discrimination and violation happen to us? That is a very good question to every working woman.

Finally, I want to highlight HRW report's one particular point: government bodies should not suppress feminist voices and actions in the country. Therefore, we, feminists, can activate our own agencies and work with other groups in solidarity to defend gender equality in all fields and around the world.