As we mark International Women's Day and consider what progress has been made on the status of women in Hong Kong, the best that can be said, unfortunately, is that the picture is confounding and contradictory. At worst, stagnation and setbacks seem to be the order of the day.
First, Hong Kong's primary and secondary schools have even numbers of female and male students, with girls pulling ahead at university and outperforming boys in many subjects. What is frustrating is that the improvement in educational opportunities for women has not translated into economic outcomes. The labour force participation rate for women here is lower than that of other developed economies, especially for married and less educated women. Even for more educated women, enhanced educational credentials are not translating into senior positions.
In government, politics and business, the corridors of power are dominated by men. Men hold 82per cent of the seats in the Legislative Council, make up 83per cent of the judiciary and comprise 68per cent of the top-ranked civil servants. In academia, women occupy only 14per cent of senior positions, with not one female university chancellor. The gender gap is even wider in the boardroom and the executive suite.
Gender inequalities are also manifest in many other areas, often with tragic consequences. When it comes to low-income families, women are particularly vulnerable - especially marginalised groups like new migrants from the mainland, the elderly and single mothers: over 80per cent of workers earning less than HK$5,000 per month are female; 84per cent of single mothers live below the poverty line; and more than 100,000 elderly women received Comprehensive Social Security Assistance in 2010, with that number set to rise sharply in future as women continue to outlive men.
So, why is progress so stagnant?
The inadequacies of the social welfare system in Hong Kong have been well documented on this page. The answer, in part, also lies with the fact that we are not doing enough to raise our girls to be leaders.