All the conditions meet the recruitment requirements. Just because I am a woman, I can only say "goodbye" to this job opportunity. In life, many female job seekers have encountered such helplessness. "Equal employment between men and women" is the essence of many laws, such as labor law and employment promotion law, but the reality often backfires. Is "equal employment for men and women" really just "looking beautiful"?
It's not my fault, it's just because "I'm a woman"
Bai, a freshman in the School of Economics and Management of Northwest University, recently signed a tripartite agreement with a housekeeping unit in An. But looking back on the road to job hunting, she still showed some helplessness. She told reporters that she and the female students in her class had encountered gender discrimination more or less when they were looking for jobs. Although some units will not indicate that they only want men in the recruitment regulations, they will still focus on resume screening and interview. "From the perspective of employment difficulty, boys are far easier than girls." White said:
A female student who is applying for a job at the School of Journalism, Renmin University of China is also very depressed. Because she is a liberal arts major, the ratio of male to female in the class is roughly one to three, but up to now, the jobs of boys are basically fixed, while not many girls have fixed jobs.
Such examples are common in college students' job hunting. A female college student in Wuhan changed her QQ signature to "It's not my fault, it's just because I'm a woman" after repeatedly encountering obstacles in job hunting. This is not her feeling alone. A recent survey of college students by Shaanxi Provincial Committee of Jiu San Society shows that among female respondents, 25.3% think that "gender" is an obstacle to their job hunting, while men only have 10.7%.
Gender discrimination exists not only in the employment market of college students, but also in the employment market of migrant workers with relatively low education. A few employers will directly restrict gender when recruiting, while more employers will exclude women on the grounds of hard work, high pressure and difficulty in taking care of their families, or set obstacles in all aspects of recruitment.
In addition, in some traditional "special fields" of women's employment, such as housekeeping and preschool education, men have gradually appeared in recent years, which has further marginalized women in the employment competition.
Gender discrimination in employment lacks legal definition.
According to the reporter's understanding, the current gender discrimination in the job market is still more concentrated on women. The physiological characteristics of women, the problems of raising children and taking care of families brought about by marriage and pregnancy are the main reasons why employers are afraid of having women. Some employers' recruiters said that enterprises are pursuing profits, not conceptual "moral care".
Many female job seekers are ambivalent about gender discrimination in employment. On the one hand, they think it is reasonable for enterprises to prefer to recruit men from the perspective of cost saving. But on the other hand, it feels unfair. Bai, a student at Northwest University, said that women shoulder the responsibility of bearing and reproducing offspring, which is a contribution to the whole society and should be given preferential policies in women's employment. Except for some jobs that require strong physical labor, there is little difference between men and women in most jobs. Women can do a lot of work, even better than men. Obstacles should not be set up from the beginning to put women in a more disadvantaged position.
Professor Guo Huimin, director of the Center for Women's Development and Rights Research at Northwestern Polytechnical University, said that after the reform and opening up, state-owned and collective enterprises have stripped off their original social service functions, and the benefits such as childcare, which is a guarantee unit for women's employment, have been marketized, thus completely transferring the costs of maternity and family care responsibilities borne by women to enterprises, increasing the employment costs of women.
At present, although a series of laws, such as the Labor Law, the Employment Promotion Law and the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, have clearly defined the principle of equal employment between men and women, the legislation prohibiting employment discrimination is abstract and lacks maneuverability. The law does not define employment discrimination, nor does it stipulate the burden of proof and the form of responsibility of the discriminators, so it cannot protect workers.
Incorporate gender discrimination in employment into the scope of labor inspection
Guo Huimin suggested that gender inequality in employment should be gradually eliminated by defining gender discrimination, especially in employment. Legal concepts need to be clear and specific in order to be operational. For example, in Britain, gender discrimination is divided into direct discrimination and indirect discrimination, and there is a clear definition. Only when the elements of discrimination are specified in detail can the law operate. It is necessary to sort out the relationship between other laws and the law on the protection of women's rights and interests, and formulate detailed rules for the implementation of the employment promotion law, so that gender discrimination in employment can become an operational concrete norm.
Guo Huimin said that in the case that the market itself can't solve the employment discrimination problem, the government should take on more responsibilities and give certain compensation to enterprises and women when necessary. Guo Huimin said that some countries in Northern Europe have adopted gender-neutral policies, such as taking maternity leave and taking responsibility for child care, which has weakened the gender gap to some extent and reduced the cost of job hunting for women.
In a proposal submitted by Shaanxi Women's Federation at the Fourth Session of the Tenth CPPCC in Shaanxi Province, it is suggested that the labor administrative department should expand its extended functions, bring gender discrimination in the employment process into the scope of supervision and management, effectively supervise the employment market, and promptly correct and investigate employment discrimination and illegal acts against women.
Li Yajuan, an associate professor at the School of Humanities and Economics of Northwestern Polytechnical University, said that at present, there is widespread gender discrimination in job advertisements, but the advertisement review led by the industrial and commercial departments often only examines its authenticity and legality, and the contents that violate the Employment Promotion Law and the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests are not included in the review. The government should publish documents, which should be included in the scope of review, and put an end to such open discrimination. Work should be determined by ability, not by gender.
Guo Huimin said that Article 62 of the Employment Promotion Law clearly stipulates: "In case of employment discrimination in violation of the provisions of this Law, workers may bring a lawsuit to the people's court." This provides a direct legal basis for workers to get judicial relief when they encounter discrimination, but there are no cases caused by gender discrimination in employment in China at present. Legal rights should be transformed into women's rights in social life, and litigation or arbitration procedures should be designed to improve the degree of judicature of gender discrimination cases.