South China's Guangzhou municipality is mulling a regulation
that seeks to widen job opportunities for women by outlawing "males
only" restrictions in job vacancies, according to a bill submitted
to the municipal people's congress.
The bill, proposed by Li Jin, a congress representative and
president of the Guangzhou Municipal Women's Federation, and other
women's rights advocates, said employers will face a maximum fine
of 5,000 yuan (about US$641) if they impose gender restrictions on
jobs that women are capable of doing.
Li said although the national regulation stipulates that some
heavy-labor jobs like mining are not suitable for women, "males
only" or "males preferred" restrictions have been abused by
employers.
The restrictions are an outrageous infringement on women's
rights, Li said. But others are skeptical about whether the law
will make much difference in practice.
Wu Changzhen, vice president of the Beijing Women's Federation,
said even if women apply, employers can come up with many pretexts
to avoid hiring them.
According to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Labor and
Social Security, over 67 percent of employers have prevented women
from applying for certain positions.
Most employers do not want to hire women due to concerns that
marriage and pregnancy will affect their job performance, said Yang
Yansui, director of the Employment and Social Security Research
Center of Tsinghua University.
It will take a lot more efforts, including regulations and
awareness campaigns, to eliminate discrimination against women,
Yang said.
Apart from trying to remove gender barriers in employment, the
bill includes clauses to protect women from sexual harassment and
domestic violence.
The bill is under discussion in the local people's congress.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)