Advertisement
Advertisement
China Conference Hong Kong
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
(From left) Daisy Guo, Scarlett Li and Susanne Choi attend a session on women’s issues at the China Conference in Hong Kong on Thursday. Photo: Nora Tam

Could businesswomen be the game changers for gender equality in China?

  • Author Joy Chen tells session at China Conference that women are ‘at the centre of an epic clash’ in a changing society
  • But panel member Scarlett Li says encouraging more women to become entrepreneurs could be one way to improve gender parity

Women entrepreneurs could be the game changers when it comes to improving gender equality in the workplace and society, panellists told the South China Morning Post’s annual China Conference on Thursday.

Speaking at a session on women’s issues, author Joy Chen, who wrote the bestseller Do Not Marry Before Age 30, said they faced “enormous pressure” in a changing society.

“I see Chinese women at the centre of an epic clash between old and new China, because it is really only in this generation Chinese women have become among the best educated talent in the world,” said Chen, who is also the former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and has worked as a CEO headhunter for Fortune 500 companies.

“Yet they still feel enormous pressure pulling them back to traditional roles, it’s the pressure to get married, to have kids … there are pressures from all sides still pulling women to go back to at least halfway – maybe not as full-time wives or mothers, but to inch back in their careers.”

While China sells big economy ideas to the Chinese people, the West gets wrong idea, Everbright chief says

Chen’s address on the challenges faced by this generation of Chinese women was followed by a panel discussion on their crucial role in China’s future.

Despite its rapid development, China has one of the lowest rates of gender equality among the world’s most powerful economies. It was ranked 100th of 144 countries for gender parity in a study by the World Economic Forum last year – slipping backwards for a ninth consecutive year.

Susanne Choi Yuk-ping, a sociology professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the panel that the gender equality picture was unusual in China, where women had long achieved a high employment ratio because of the communist government’s need for a massive labour force to drive economic targets and run state-owned enterprises in the late 20th century.

But she said society was now experiencing widening gender pay and employment rate gaps, and also a workplace “leadership gap” between men and women that had “remained the same, if not widened”.

China is experiencing widening gender pay and employment rate gaps. Photo: Alamy

The situation for working women in China could even have led some of them to conclude that relying on marriage was a better option.

“Women are not born to want to choose marriage as a better or final avenue – this is because of existing labour market discrimination and a lack of childcare support, so we have to turn to policy reforms for this issue,” Choi said.

Chinese women jobseekers told to use hotline to report gender discrimination

She urged the Chinese government to introduce anti-gender discrimination legislation, to allow feminist non-governmental organisations to work more freely in the country, and to bring in more family-friendly policies for working women.

China has one of the lowest rates of gender equality among the world’s most powerful economies. Photo: Reuters

Also on the panel was Scarlett Li, founder of music festival promoter Zebra Media, who said there could be a better way to solve the problem: encourage more women to become entrepreneurs.

“I am optimistic. Technology development has allowed women to have many more chances to become entrepreneurs – they can start their own shops on online platforms or become bloggers who earn money from filming popular videos on apps,” Li said.

“A lot of people have become very successful and financially independent from these … and this has solved the gender equality problem that has stemmed from differences in geographical resources.”

Although it might be easier for women to launch a business, Li said running it was the challenge.

“We talk about support for women in the corporate environment, but I think in China, with the competition for start-ups, it is impossible to have a balanced life,” Li said.

The West trusts Hong Kong, a unique position the city must not lose, business leaders say at China Conference

She also mentioned the popular Chinese term “996” – meaning a workday that runs from 9am to 9pm and includes working on Saturdays.

“If you cannot do 996, you are out. So I think if we ask these start-ups, who are desperate to get market share, to make female-friendly workplace policies, it will be very difficult,” she said.

“A more efficient way is to have more women – to give women more incentives to set up their own businesses. That would eventually be beneficial to both society and their families.”

But Daisy Guo Xiaoqian, co-founder of a start-up, disagreed with the need to work longer hours.

“I am absolutely against the 996 convention,” said Guo, who is also chief marketing officer for Tezign, a platform that connects companies with designers and illustrators.

Asked by Li how a small business could compete without following the 996 approach, Guo said it was a matter of finding a balance.

“For anyone who works – both women and men – they are not going to work for the sake of it,” she said. “They are hoping for a better life, and that includes their family life and their personal life. We still need to balance that.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Women entrepreneurs could be ‘game changers’
Post