Essay by Wong Wai Sam
In China, one of the major challenges and issues women or girls face is patriarchy. Sadly, bias in family status and discrimination in the workplace are still common in our society.
The first known record of the history of China dated back 3,000 years ago. This has given its people an immensely rich and beautiful culture of arts, poetry and delicacies, but it has also instilled in its society a deeply-rooted sense of patriarchy. As an agricultural country, women are defaulted to take care of their household and children while men are the breadwinners of the family. Now, companies in China and Hong Kong tend to hire men more than women during the recruitment process. According to research, despite a narrowing wage gap between the two genders, women in China on average earned merely 80% of that of men in 2020. Their paternal thinking also affects their decisions on job promotions. Some companies believed that women require more holidays and leaves such as menstrual leave and parental leave which causes poorer work performance. Moreover, the workplace in China and Hong Kong is rarely providing a friendly working environment to mothers. For example, the policy to provide breastfeeding areas to mothers is still a relatively new idea. Such a hostile working environment for women indeed discourages some from pursuing a career. It creates a toxic cycle which makes it hard for women to fight for their rights in the workplace.
In some areas in China, women and girls still face discrimination and challenges such as struggling to have an establish education, the lack of caregivers’ welfare and a women-friendly society. When it comes to making a choice between their son and daughter, most families still favour the males in the family and would send their sons to school and to the city to work.
Even in Hong Kong, a so-called international city where it is common for women to work, they are still expected to become mothers and take up all of the tasks and housework at home – while dealing with their daytime job. Girls are supposed to know how to cook and do housework. A working mother who does not cook dinner for her family is considered ‘negligence’; a working dad who takes his children out for fast food is seen as the ‘fun dad’. This kind of stereotype stays and the judging continues. As a result, it invisibly increases the pressure on women and limits the chance of a woman establishing a high-flying career. They are mostly stressed and unable to release their pressure.
The 21st century has no place for such stereotypes. We are leaving behind us the agricultural community we once had; to meet the demands of the future, Hong Kong and China must evolve and see genders as equal. In conclusion, although there are still some problems of women and girls being treated unfairly, I still believe that we will have a great future for both sexes once we abandon patriarchy. Every one of us
– men or women – should focus on our delegated responsibilities and work together as a team, not a comparator.