A woman who has won compensation and an apology from a school that forced her to wear a dress instead of trousers while teaching hopes her 'painful experience' will help prevent discrimination in the workplace.
The Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club Fung Yiu King Memorial Secondary School, where Kwong Ho-ying worked in 2007, settled out of court after she sued it in May.
'I'm a teacher, not a model. I shouldn't necessarily have to wear a dress to work,' Kwong said yesterday, speaking publicly for the first time since the settlement, which ended a three-year struggle with the school. 'I'm only one of the victims of wrong gender stereotyping at school. There are others who suffered the same as me. I hope my case will set a precedent and help others,' she said.
The school offered the undisclosed settlement two weeks after Kwong filed the writ in the District Court with the help of the Equal Opportunities Commission in May.
Commission chairman Lam Woon-kwong had said the case would have a far-reaching effect on gender stereotyping in workplaces across different industries and urged employers to study it carefully when they set their dress codes. Teachers and women's rights groups heralded the case as a victory for recognition of fair treatment of women at work.
Kwong said she had been under 'tremendous stress' during the three-year dispute. 'I could not sleep and lost five to 10 pounds in two weeks,' she said. 'At one point I almost cracked, and I needed to seek help from a social worker.'
Kwong resigned after teaching at the school for two months because she could not bear the pressure from the dress code and humiliation by the headmaster, who would single her out during assembly and comment on her attire after she wore trousers and a blouse on the first day of school.