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SCMP Reporter

TO be turned down for a job is always disappointing. But in China, where it is difficult for new university graduates to find jobs, it is doubly disheartening when employers tell female job applicants they would rather hire a man in any circumstances.

  Such blatant discrimination is unlikely to be expressed openly in most societies but it is a common practice in China.

  And there are complications. While the quality job market is competitive, there are professions in China where work conditions and endemic discrimination against women have resisted China's changing social and economic conditions.

  Wang Yen graduated this year as a teacher from one of the best English-language teaching universities in China.

  Since she completed her studies in June, she has been looking for a job. Like thousands of similar students, she must find work if she is to keep her modest roof over her head.

   Under the terms of her study grant, she loses her Beijing hukou (residency card) if she is still unemployed three months after graduation, and if she loses her hukou, she must return to a limited future in her native Hunan Province.

 Yet time and again, prospective employers have given her the same answer. The mostly male bosses believe women will cost them money and do not have the physical and mental strength of male workers.

  Under Chinese law if a woman becomes pregnant she can be entitled to up to nine months' maternity leave.

  Women are also seen to be less successful in striking a deal and not as effective as communicators in the male-dominated world of the Chinese professions, joint-venture businesses and government.

 These traditional beliefs run deep. Despite women's high employment rate in China - in 1990 65 per cent of urban women over 15 went to work - most were employed in service positions, as lowly-paid clerks, or in professions at the lower end of the pay scale.

  Unfortunately for Ms Wang, teachers suffer in this situation. She wanted to teach English at a university where her skills would be challenged. But she has not been offered a job, despite widespread interest in learning English with the growth of foreignand joint ventures in China.

   Ms Wang become desperate. With only a month before her residency visa ran out, she widened her job net and thought about part-time work. She was offered a translator's position but the employer only wanted full-time help.

   ''Life is very fuza [complicated],'' she admits. ''I was not able to take a full-time job because my university would not allow it.''   Only in recent years have students been able to choose where and to whom they apply for jobs. But the university where the student has studied still has the final say about their students' job prospects.

  Ultimately, it is the university that picks where a student will work and in education departments the academic decision-makers control their graduates, and therefore their incomes and chances of a more prosperous future in the private sector.

   ''Seven out of 100 students get out of education,'' said Ms Wang. She would like to be one of the seven but believes it is too difficult. Since the state pays for a student's education, the student has to take the position the government chooses and work in that capacity for five years.

  Those lucky enough to study abroad can pay back the state to leave early. But if a student tries to get out of his/her assigned field, the student will have to persuade university superiors to approve the transfer.

 ''Most of the time, the process isn't worth the trouble,'' Ms Wang said.

  Aside from the necessity of keeping her hukou, Ms Wang had wanted to find a job that would offer her a higher salary and the opportunity for advancement.

But with her window of opportunity shrinking Ms Wang has had to take a job teaching English at a middle school. ''I love this job but how can I bring up a family on my salary?'' Ms Wang said.

  Statistics released in 1988 revealed an oversupply of female teachers in primary schools throughout China, especially in Beijing and Shanghai.

  While they represented only 41 per cent of all teachers in China, women teachers in Beijing totalled 74 per cent and in Shanghai 68 per cent. These numbers have concerned people who believe children are becoming ''womanised''.

  ''During breaks, boys and girls are playing the same games that only girls used to play. On buses, boys are speaking like girls, and some parents are concerned that their sons cry if criticised or they fall over. The problem is that student have more female softness but less male strength,'' reported the Guangming Daily.

  Although women's liberation has reached a certain point, it threatens to slide backwards in the reforms.

  Since liberation the state has pursued a high employment rate which was beneficial to women. But in reality, industries were overstaffed and productivity was low. In order to be more economically efficient industries have applied Darwin's survival of thefittest.

  ''In state and collective ownership enterprises, 20 million surplus employees will be removed from their positions,'' reported China Youth.

  Some estimate that since 1988, in pursuit of a more efficient labour system, 60 to 70 per cent of retrenched employees have been women.

  ''Teaching and education is important for the whole country. The number of illiterates is multiplying every day,'' said Ms Wang. ''The leaders speak but the words stop at the mouth. They never care about teachers, they never put much money into education. No people are eager to do this job.

    ''I think women teachers are good but all women being teachers and getting less money is unfair,'' Ms Wang added. ''Indeed, women still have a long way to go.'' 



Keeping jobs for the boys