A very newsworthy item has unfortunately failed to make the headlines. It’s unfortunate because the Gender Research Centre of the Chinese University’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies did a tremendous job in its report on public attitudes towards female political leadership . The report, commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission, also examined views on different policies for increasing female representation in political leadership and eliminating hurdles encountered by women. Granted, there’s nothing surprising in the findings. If anything, they confirm the sad fact that things have remained pretty much the same for women. While women have come a long way in terms of academic achievements, they continue to be held back by traditional gender biases and gendered family roles. We know better than to expect perceptions to change overnight, but it may be shocking to see how little has changed. Women are still grossly under-represented politically. There are only two female ministers in Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s government and nine women sitting in the Legislative Council today. Even so, 51 per cent of the survey respondents said they felt there was no need to increase the proportion of women in political leadership. Gender stereotypes stubbornly persist in public perceptions of policy areas. The study found that more than half of the general public believed that men were more capable in dealing with security affairs, economics, finance and trade, while women were more capable in social welfare and education. However, if we look at education, there has only been one woman who served as Hong Kong’s education minister in the history of the office. Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun served as what was then called the office of the Secretary for Education and Manpower under the Tung Chee-hwa administration. Law is also the shortest-serving education minister, though, ending her term of office a few days shy of two years. The survey results also indicated that the public is not ignorant of the barriers that women face in their public life pursuits. In fact, their views are close to the findings from a web-based survey of political leaders themselves conducted at around the same time. So it is a widely known and accepted fact that “domestic responsibilities”, “traditional attitudes of gender roles” and “double standards between genders to prove themselves” are obstacles faced by predominantly by women. Japan has a long way to go to meet ‘womenomics’ gender equality goals I have little doubt that women would like to have work-life balance. What this means, though, is that women have yet to escape the traditional shackles of being tied down with responsibilities of housekeeping, child rearing and caring for elders, even if they also work. And yet, when it comes to recommendations on countering the barriers women encounter, we are left with platitudes. Respondents broadly supported measures to “encourage women to lean in for opportunities”, “implement family-friendly policies” and “provide training for potential female leaders”. There needs to be much more than just family-friendly policies. Otherwise, how much time can be set aside for potential female leaders to be trained, when they are already taking on more to prove themselves and yet still have to work the double shift at home? What does it mean to encourage women to “lean in”? We need to look into whether thinking that women are not “leaning in” enough is a new gender bias. Former US first lady Michelle Obama had some choice words about Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s famous “lean in” advice – she said “that s*** doesn’t work”. The advice has been picked apart by so many since Sandberg wrote her book. The notion that women aren’t leaning in puts the onus on them, as though they are the ones who are not ambitious enough, not trying hard enough, or not reaching high enough. Most can agree that women’s participation in public affairs enriches and betters our political process. We need to tear down these barriers instead of telling women to ram their heads repeatedly against these concrete barriers. Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA