CHINA
A new report has found that female Public Servants face sexual harassment and discrimination in China, while almost one in five Public Service job advertisements specify “men only”.
Human Rights Watch found 19 per cent of postings in the Chinese Government’s 2019 national Public Service Jobs List, which has just been released, specify a preference or requirement for men.
There are no postings that say they prefer or require female candidates.
The discriminatory postings often cite “frequent overtime work”, “heavy workload” and “frequent travel” as reasons women are excluded.
While Chinese law bars gender discrimination in hiring, job discrimination continues to be a prevalent problem.
China Director of Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson said while Chinese President, Xi Jinping claimed to uphold Chinese law, his administration made no effort to protect women PS employees from discrimination.
“Chinese authorities need to end this appalling practice in Civil Service hiring immediately,” Ms Richardson said.
“As China’s growing #MeToo movement shows, Chinese women not only face unfair barriers to joining the Civil Service, but sexual harassment in those jobs.”
She said the Government needed to send an unequivocal message to its workforce that it would not tolerate sexual harassment.
Human Rights Watch found posts on Chinese social media platforms and online forums where anonymous female PS employees described experiences of sexual harassment from men in positions of superiority and asked for advice on how to deal with it.
“I’m being sexually harassed by the Deputy Party Secretary in my work unit, is there any way I can get him dismissed?” one post read.
“I worked so hard to get this job … [I] don’t want to quit because of this kind of person. The one [who] should be dismissed is that leader.”
Beijing, 10 November 2018
