gender_equality_article

1、This shows the Law on the Promotion of Employment, which came into force in 2008, has helped lessen gender discrimination at workplaces. But gender discrimination still exists despite the progress.For instance, most of the employers have changed their strategy from direct refusal to implicit discrim

2、ination. They set different criteria kra'tr标准，条件 for men and women, and ask woman applicants tougher questions. Some of the questions put to women, like whether they can drink, sing and dance, and whether they have a boyfriend and when do they plan to get married, have no relevance 'rlvns关联；

3、适当；中肯 whatsoever to the job. Some employers still write clauses in job contracts, forbidding woman employees from getting married, or conceiving kn'siv 怀孕, or taking maternity leave产假. In some enterprises, men and women doing the same work are paid differently, and promotion提升，劳经 晋升；推销，促销；促进；发扬，

4、振兴 procedures程序；规程 favor men. Sometimes women are forced to live away from their husbands, and some are even forced to retire earlier than men.But far worse than all this is institutional制度的；制度上的；学会的 discrimination. For example, a national regulation国家规范says that only people who have worked for at l

5、east 35 years can draw 90 percent of their salary as pension退休金，抚恤金；津贴；膳宿费. People who have worked for less than 35 years can get only 85 percent, and those with less than 30 years of work, only 80 percent. So if a woman professor, academic大学生，大学教师；学者 or civil servant公务员wants to draw 90 percent of h

6、er salary as pension after retirement, she has to start work at or before reaching the age of 20 because the mandatory强制的；托管的；命令的 retirement age for women is 55.A survey conducted under the "anti gender discrimination at China's workplace" project shows that when women face gender disc

7、rimination in employment, 25.6 percent of them choose to endure忍耐 it, 26.5 percent take it up with their employers, 32.4 percent complain to relevant government departments, and only 16.9 percent decide to move court.Based on academic research and judicial practices, I see the following as the major

8、 hurdles on the road to gender equality:The first hurdle障碍 is the exclusion排除；排斥；驱逐；被排除在外的事物 of gender discrimination from the range of civil courts' jurisdiction司法权，审判权，管辖权；权限，权力. Pension, for example, is determined by the amount paid as social security, length of employment and the savings in

9、individual accounts. The later a person retires, the higher his/her pension will be.The mandatory retirement ages for men (60 years) and women (55 for officials and 50 for workers), however, are different because of which woman employees of the same age and academic qualification get less pension th

10、an their male peers.Since female education is improving but women's career is still shorter, early retirement affects women's promotion and acts as a hurdle in their career development. Because in practice an employee is considered for promotion only before five years of his/her retirement,

11、it is more difficult for women to reach a decision-making level in an organization.Civil courts usually reject complaints against gender discrimination in such cases saying they are beyond the range of their work. Since civil courts are the last resort for gender discrimination victims to get justic

12、e, by rejecting the complaints they stifle the voices of even women who dare to complain.In 2008, I conducted an investigation into the healthcare system of Tangshan, Hebei province, and talked with 172 complainants who challenged their employers on retirement age. Woman professionals, including nur

13、ses and pharmacists, were forced to retire at 50 because their personal documents said they were "workers". And when they were "rehired after retirement", their average income fell by more than 2,000 yuan.These women filed many petitions to get justice. Four of them moved court b

14、ut none won the case. The court rejected the lawsuit of the first complainant, surnamed Han, because it "was not in the range of acceptance". The other three complainants' cases were rejected, too. In the end, the women resorted to administrative coordination to get the support of the

15、government.The second problem is linking class actions with mass incidents. I have acted as an agent in two labor disputes, each of which had 36 complainants. Though one plaint should have been enough to make the demand of all the complainants clear, the court ruled that they have to be divided into

16、 individual cases. It not only raised the costs of printing lawsuit materials and wasted precious judicial resources, but also broke up the group and gave the defendant the chance to win the cases against individual complainants one after another.Overseas experience shows that class actions could be

17、nefit vulnerable people by unifying them against the stronger side. A famous example is the lawsuit filed by thousands of Dell Inc's woman employees, led by a former senior executive of the company.In July, Dell announced that it had reached an agreement with the complainants to settle a gender

18、discrimination class action taken by its former employees. Dell not only had to pay $9.1 million to the complainants, but also invited psychologists to evaluate its recruitment procedure and experts to suggest adjustments in woman employees' salaries. Had Dell employees filed individual lawsuits

19、, the result could have been different. Stability can only be achieved by solving the problems we have, and it is arbitrary to link class actions with mass incidents.Third, the lack of anti-discrimination law and the lack of adequate employment opportunities deter victims from trying to fight for th

20、eir rights.Though the 2005 amendment to the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women says equality between men and women is a basic national policy, there is still no explicit definition of discrimination, no special organization in charge of implementation, no clear legal responsibili

21、ty, no rule to ensure witnesses' attendance and no regulation on preventing reprisal against complainants.The absence of these necessary elements gives a victim little hope of winning a case in court. In practice, costs are usually higher than gains.Hence因此，从今以后, the government has to resolve al

22、l the above issues if it really wants to establish gender equality at workplaces.In my opinion, Men and women are equal in the world.In a long time women were treated not the same important as men and had less opportunities in education or other fields. Although inequalities still exist nowadays, Ch

23、ina has made a great progress in gender equality since 19th century.Undoubtfully, Chinese women have made some major progress in some fileds. And we know how important the role of women is to society, to health, to economic growth and education of children.  In spite of this, it's a pity that I do find some gender discriminations. The income gap between men and women continues widening, and some employees are often refused to employ women or reduce the number of women cadres干部. Girls in rural areas农村地区have fewer education opportunities be