Despite coming changes, Hong Kong mothers still face uphill battle in workplace
- The raft of family-friendly measures announced in the chief executive’s policy address may not be enough to deal with entrenched attitudes and practices
- Hong Kong’s working culture blamed for low female workforce participation and lack of women in senior positions
When Mandy Chan Man-yee returned to work at a law firm after her maternity leave in May, she was asked to step down from her position as legal secretary to be a receptionist instead.
“It hit me hard,” the mother of a 3½-year-old boy and a seven-month-old girl said. “After all, I’d spent the last eight years establishing my career as a legal secretary at the firm.”
Chan, 31, said her supervisors hinted that if she did not do as she was told, she would be let go. She resigned.
When Chan first served notice of her pregnancy, a senior partner at the firm had sat her down for a two-hour chat about the “potential implications” on the firm’s operations. But it is illegal in Hong Kong for employers to fire pregnant employees.
“I thought I must have exhausted their tolerance,” said Chan, who had both her children while working at the company.