“I didn’t take it seriously and believed in my own ability, but half a year later I understood how difficult for a girl to find a job,” says Xu, an editing major from Beijing Normal University. She was turned down for several times by almost the same regretful sentence “How I wish you were a boy” to her many job applications.

Similarly, a woman postgraduate who failed to beat male candidates questioned the personnel manager: “Why you can not finally accept me since your manager and staff interviewed me are both females?”

Many girls meet similar problems in job seeking, according to China Youth Daily. Despite calls from the society for sex equality in job markets, many enterprises still declare openly in their want ads “male only” or “male preferred”. At a job fair on the campus of Shanxi University of Finance and Economics last March, college girls found even job vacancies when accountant and secretary want males only.

“More often than not we simply don’t have an opportunity to show ourselves,” Xu sighed. A tutor for master students at Renmin University says he doesn’t want to accept girl students any more, for he has to worry too much upon their graduation. One of his students, after a string of job failure, complained to him “Why, I really want to change myself into a boy by operation!”

While those companies reject the claim of sex discrimination, as a personnel manager from a Beijing enterprise puts it, “we by no means look down upon females and it is because of the actual condition of our company. Our staff has to go on business trips frequently and we don’t think it safe to send a girl away.”

To this associate professor Li Xiandong from China University of Political Science and Law says the “male only” or “male preferred” in job markets are totally sex discrimination running against law of our country.

The first clause of the 48th article of Constitution of the People’s Republic of China provides woman enjoys equal rights with man in political, economic, cultural, social and family life. The third article of China’s Labor Law provides that as part of labors woman enjoys equal job opportunities and rights in choosing jobs. Li adds that nowadays many companies misuse their employment rights and result in the blockage of job opportunities for females.

“Discrimination against females is illegal,” says Professor Wu Changzhen, CPPCC National Committee member and vice-chairman of the Women’s Federation of Beijing. She explains that those “male only”, “male preferred” or higher standards for women in employment are all violations to equal rights and women’s dignity. The Law of PRC on Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women also contains clauses on woman’s equal rights in job markets in article 2, 21 and 22.

But these articles are more general principles than detailed rules therefore weak in practice, adds Professor Wu, saying that for the time being it’s really difficult to protect woman’s job rights solely relying on law.

Woman receives unfair treatment could complaint to relevant local departments, even take it to the court if it could not be solved through administrative interventions.

Li further points out the social reason for sex discrimination, saying this is also because woman is over-loaded with duties both in society and family. To solve the problem social labor division should go more detailed and business scales of service industry be enlarged.

(People’s Daily 04/26/2001)