From Chinese Press

Job market fueling gender bias

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-15 07:41

Gender imbalance is a social disease, to cure which society has to make a concerted effort, says an article in Changjiang Daily. Excerpts:

There will be 24 million more men than women of marriageable age by 2020, says the Society Blue Book of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Gender imbalance has become a social disease in China. Banning hospitals and clinics from verifying the sex of embryos to prevent female feticide hasn't helped reduce the gender imbalance.

China's market-oriented economy, tacitly or otherwise, has been highlighting the disadvantages of women in the job market. Many companies prefer to employ men because they think hiring women would increase their labor costs, for they have to be given paid maternity leave.

The traditional concept of family, too, is prejudiced against women because they have to become members of their husbands' families after marriage. All these factors combine to make people yearn for a son.

The government should take measures, such as granting subsidy to companies, to ensure employers hire equal number of women. Only when women are treated as equals in the job market can the gender imbalance be corrected.

                                                                         (China Daily 07/15/2010 page9)