It is fairness that counts in gender war

Shanghai Star. 2003-03-13

The recent passing of International Women's Day raised another wave of heated discussion of women's rights. I sometimes wonder why there is not an International Men's Day.

Gradually I have come to realize that sometimes we give people something just because we have taken too much from them. So isn't it a good idea that we just give women one day or one week and then we can take virtually everything from them the rest of the year without disturbing our consciences?

We say, "Ladies first" when getting on a bus because for too many times we have put "Ladies last".

Several years ago, one girl student from the journalism department of my university applied for a job as a journalist but was refused by the employer on the ground that her bachelor degree did not make her competent enough.

She went back to university to pursue her master's degree in journalism and three years later, she stood before the same interviewer, who again refused to employ her. This time he told her: "OK, tell you the truth, lady, we did not, do not and will not want female candidates. That's all."

Girl university students have great difficulties finding jobs. Usually they have to make a far greater effort than their male counterparts in securing a job. And the painful time of job hunting is by no means the end of their troubles - it is the beginning of a long road of discrimination.

Next, after several years of hard work, they hesitate about whether or not to marry because, once they marry and have children, they run the risk of losing their hard-earned job.

So they choose not to marry or to have children but to continue to work hard. Then they find out about the glass ceiling.

And at home, away from the job, there is always someone calling on you to go back to the kitchen. You may think that the kitchen is the right place for you. So you go back. But after you go back, you find an angry husband who may have had an unpleasant day and who starts to beat you. OK, I'll stop. I am not going to go into the unpleasant topic of domestic violence.

You may ask why is all this happening to women? Is it just because one happens to get the wrong allocation of the Gene X and Gene Y?

The problem is global but seems more acute in China where a large part of the female population is under-educated and economically dependent on their husbands.

A fair position starts from a fair opportunity, which starts from education, the law and the building up of a healthy social consensus.

On the government's part, it should make, and more importantly, take steps to enforce laws and regulations that are there to ensure equal opportunity in public education and fair employment for the female population.

However, I also believe the government can play only a limited role. While labour laws in China and in many other countries around the world have protection clauses for women, yet law enforcement cannot match the skills developed by profit-oriented employers who want to circumvent the law.

So, a healthy social consensus and a sensible gender climate become vital to the solution of the problem and to further the healthy development of both sexes and of society as a whole.

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Copyright by Shanghai Star.