The Women’s Commission report makes it clear: The success of Hong Kong women is built on education

Bernard Chan says changes in the law and in attitudes have obviously played a part in the rising proportion of women in the workforce, but their gains are mainly due to better education

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A woman browses books at the annual Hong Kong book fair in Wan Chai. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:31pm, 21 Jul 2016Updated: 7:04pm, 21 Jul 2016

The Women’s Commission recently released its latest annual report on the status of women in Hong Kong. As well as demographic statistics, “Hong Kong Women in Figures 2015” provides an informative snapshot of how women have been doing in terms of education, employment, health and social and political participation.

There are various factors that can influence the data. One is gender distribution by age. Put simply, elderly people are on the whole poorer and less educated than the young, and the percentage of elderly people has grown. This can affect male-female comparisons across the population.

Another factor is the inflow of mainland migrants. Some of these are the result of marriage. The trend shows the number of cross-boundary marriages declining – though the number of Hong Kong women marrying mainland men is growing. This seems to be part of a trend in which such unions are becoming less of a grass-roots and more of a middle-class phenomenon.

People raise Chinese and Hong Kong flags during an open day at the People's Liberation Army navy base at Stonecutters Island in Hong Kong. Photo: AFP

A quota for women on Hong Kong company boards? No, thanks

One thing that is clear from the report is that women are gaining on men in terms of education. Over the last 10 years or so, Hongkongers of both genders have moved up the education ladder, notably in terms of post-secondary qualifications. As the number of college-level openings has grown, women have consolidated their position in publicly funded programmes. They had some 55 per cent of places some 10 years ago, and now account for around 54 per cent of the much larger number of places.