OpinionHong Kong politics: more women can lean in only if barriers are removed

While women have come a long way in academic achievements, they are still held back by traditional biases and gendered family roles

Surveys show the public is aware of the additional barriers women face in public life, yet proposals to counter those barriers often amount to mere platitudes

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Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee, seen here with some other members of Carrie Lam’s administration in June 2017, is one of only two women principal officials in the team. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 1:30pm, 18 Oct 2020Updated: 7:52pm, 18 Oct 2020

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.

Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, left, attends the election meeting of Hong Kong deputies to the National People‘s Congress at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in November 2012. Law is the only woman to serve as Hong Kong’s education secretary, though her tenure was also the shortest in the history of the office. Photo: SCMP

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.