China’s start-ups still advertising for ‘good-looking’ tech workers despite past criticism
- China bans job discrimination based on gender yet a lack of enforcement means there’s few repercussions to discriminatory hiring practices
A year ago, China’s largest technology companies were lambasted for posting job ads seeking male employees by using “good-looking” female workers to try to lure coders. The giants scrubbed their posts in response.
Yet the next generation of China’s tech superstar wannabes apparently haven’t gotten the message.
On the country’s two largest job websites – Liepin and Zhaopin – thousands of ads for internet companies use language that suggests bias based on appearance, gender or age. That includes postings for US-listed online education site LAIX. as well as UniCareer and iZhaohu. Some ask candidates to “have presentable facial features” or be “under the age of 30.” More than 1,000 postings used beauty as bait, with many boasting that they employ “good-looking men and women.”
The prevalence of the posts, more than a year after the #Metoo movement became a global phenomenon, highlights the challenges China faces in enforcing fair hiring practices. This approach to filling tech positions contrasts with President Xi Jinping’s pledge to fight against workplace discrimination amid a shrinking workforce, even as the country cracks down on feminist activists and scrapes the web of #Metoo content.
“Chinese tech companies are falling behind western peers and need better awareness of equal opportunity and more clearly defined policies banning discrimination,” said Wang Yaqiu, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a non-profit group that has conducted studies about the issue in China. “Discriminatory practices can be even worse at smaller companies because they lack the scrutiny that publicly traded companies are under.”
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Liepin and Zhaopin do not generate the job listings, instead acting as conduits in publicising positions. Liepin did not respond to email queries to its investor relations unit’s email address. Zhaopin said in an emailed statement that it does not allow discriminatory terms in recruitment ads.