Zhang Kangsi*

 

Abstract: As an important part of women’s human rights system, women’s labor right for the women as a group is of very important value and profound significance. The existence of gender discrimination in the labor market caused a double loss of benefits and economic efficiency and the interaction with human capital investment. It seriously hinders the women's equal enjoyment of labor rights, affects the rational use of female talent resources and leads to the idle and waste of human resources in society. Based on analyzing the harm caused by gender discrimination in the labor market from an economic point of view, this paper reveals the existing problems of China's existing laws and regulations. In the end, some advisable recommendations are suggested to improve the women’s equal employment rights for China.

 

Key Words: employment discrimination    equal right of employment    female human rights

 

 

The economic interpretation of gender discrimination in the labor market roots in the separation of gender differences and discrimination. “When workers of the same productivity get different wages or workers of different productivity get the same wages, discrimination emerges.”¹ Gender discrimination is the systematic differences of the price offered by the employers to certain productivity according to gender differences; or the systematic differences of the price offered by the employers to different vocations featured by genders. Many elements in the labor market are decisive to the features of productivity: education levels, ages, work experiences and work hours, or even some elements that cannot be observed or evaluated directly, such as the difference choices of the two different genders between market labor and house labor. The gaps of the average wages and the uneven occupational distribution between male and female might result from the different productivities or the different payments though with the same productivity. The latter is exactly the gender discrimination in the labor market. 

 

To be simplified, the nature of gender discrimination in employment refers to the various overt or covert measures the employers use to deprive the female of equal occupational choices with the male in employment, which pushes them into a weak status. As a kind of social behavior, gender discrimination goes along with the whole process of people’s life, the whole process in the labor market and even the process quitting from the labor market. In China, gender discrimination in employment mainly is shown in three forms.

 

First, the existence of gender discrimination in the entrance of the labor market. The Report on Major Results of the Third Wave Survey on the Social Status of Women in China shows that gender discrimination still exists in Chinese labor market to certain degree. It is urgent to improve the social and cultural environments for female development. 10.0% of women have encountered sexual discrimination in the job market while only 4.5% of men have the similar experiences. Among female students hunting for jobs, 24.7% of them report to have encountered unequal treatment. A female student can only get one opportunity of an oral or written interview after sending averagely 9 resumes; and merely one agreement of intent with averagely 44 resumes. Over 56% of female students feel “the opportunities for women are fewer” in job-hunting. Over 90% have felt gender discrimination from employers. In actual employment, women over 45 years old are usually the prime target of redundancy. Even 19.8% of female executives feel that their gender has brought barriers for their career development.

 

At the same time, among employees, the phenomenon of occupational gender segregation still exists. Overall the employment level of women is lower, mainly distributing in some traditional lower fields such as cleaning, catering and social services; while, in some leading fields with higher payments, social judgment and promising development, the employment rate of women is usually under 30%. Unless they are extremely excellent in their fields female employees over 35 are hard to free flow. Serious occupational gender segregation does not only lead to the increasing income gap between men and women, and will badly influence the employment trend and structure of the female group in the end, which largely restricts the career development of women and is bad for the improvement of female social status.

 

Among the unemployed, the re-employment of women is not that optimistic compared with men. According to related data, during the restructure of state-owned enterprises, laid-off female workers take up the average of 22.2 but their re-employment rate is only about 10%. Nearly half of these female workers have felt age or gender discrimination in their re-employment. As a result, they can only choose some lower technical, informal, temporary and low-income occupations, such as porters or cleaners in enterprises and bodies. This also contributes to the lower income of women and thus enlarges the income gap between men and women. 
 

 

 

Second, women encounters gender discrimination in career development after entering the labor market. Even if they are as excellent as men, women get blocked in promotion. Considering the benefits and retirement ages, employers are unwilling to promote the position of women. Thus with the same high education background, men get more in payment and arenas, while for women it is in some degree a waste of human resources. The proportion of female senior executives is obviously lower than male. For example, in 2009 among the manager level of Fortune 500 enterprises, women only take up 13.5%.³ It is the same in China. It is rare to see women in high positions in a party committee and governmental department, enterprises and bodies. In political departments, for example among the leaders of People’s Congress, the governments and CPPCC at provincial level, principal female cadres only take up 6.5. In the fields of science and technology, women take up 33% of the whole human resources but only 5.3% in the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.⁴ Based on the data of CGSS2006, Wang Cuntong and Yu Jiao (2013) studied the differences of individuals with controlled educational and political backgrounds and found that the promotion opportunity of men is higher than women, as shown in Picture 2 and 3.⁵

 

Third and the last point, gender discrimination in some degree enlarges the income gaps between men and women. Data of the Third Wave Survey on the Social Status of Women in China show that the incomes of female employees between 18~64 years old mostly fall in the low or low-middle group. In the low income groups of urban and rural areas, women have taken up 59.8% and 65.7%, which are 19.6% and 31.4% higher than men respectively. In contrast, in the high income groups of urban and rural areas, women only take up 30.9% and 24.4%, which are obviously lower than men. At the same time, the data of the Survey show that the average incomes of women in urban and rural areas only takes up 67.3% and 56.0% of those of men. In Beijing-Tianjin-Shanghai, East and Middle-west Areas at different levels of development, the yearly average incomes of women are all lower than men. Based on the data of Chinese Family Panel Studies (2010), Chen Yongwei and Zhou Yi analyzed the causes of the income disparity between men and women. Income gaps are shown in Picture 4.

 

 

 

Note: A represents the managers of all employer units. B represents professional technicians. C represents clerks and personnel. D represents personnel of business and services. E represents operators of producing and transporting equipment. 

 

All the data analyses above have made it clear that gender discrimination in current Chinese labor market is still rather serious. Traditional gender discrimination does not fade away, but becomes stronger. 

 

 

2.1 the losses of benefits and profits

 

The anticipation of the economics of discrimination theory is that any kind of discrimination would lead to the loss of benefits. Discrimination brings profits to some social members but losses to others. If the profits that the beneficiaries get from discrimination can’t make up the losses, then Pareto Optimality is not able to be realized in such an economic pattern of discrimination. On the premise of “maximum efficiency, market equilibrium and stable preference”, American economist Gary S. Becker studied the economic results of discriminative acts, and got the conclusion that unlike the general view that discrimination could increase the income of discriminators, it brought losses to both discriminators and the discriminated at the same time. He asserted that all human activities followed the motive of maximum efficiency. The highest level of efficiency usually showed in the utmost satisfaction of preferences. Discrimination was just an addiction. Just like any other kind of goods or labor, its consumption was based on some variables like incomes and prices.⁷

 

There are three basic assumptions in the analysis of benefits. Assuming the productivities of men and women are the same but are employed in two similar industries; assuming elements supply is the same and of no flexibility; assuming there are no preferencial differences between these two occupations and the levels of wages are the same, as shown by rate of payments w* in Picture 5.

 

2.1.1 the loss of benefits of the discriminated

 

If a wage difference wm–w* is added randomly, or men are artificially forbidden to be employed in one industry, changing from M to M’, then male workers being replaced in industry A will turn to industry B, which used to employ women only for work. In this way, the wage of the female will decrease to wf. Workers left in the male industry will get the benefits of wm–w*, but the wages of the male workers being replaced and all the female workers will decrease by w*-wf. Then wage differences appear in the labor market. The groups that are not discriminated get benefits while the groups being discriminated suffer losses with part of separations.

 

This analysis does not involve the benefit and loss issue of industries: If the benefits the beneficiaries get from discrimination can’t make up the losses, then the discrimination economy will move from the position of Pareto Optimality to a worse position. In Picture 6, the reduction of production of industry A due to the reduction of employment is the area of an irregular quadrilateral a+b+c. Yet the increase of production due to the employment increased of industry B is only the area of a+b. Since the wage of male workers increases but that of female workers decreases, there is a pure loss of benefits standing by the area of rectangle c in industry A. The profits changing of employers could be illustrated by a general equilibrium analysis. 

 

 

2.1.2 the loss of benefits of discriminators

 

Analyze profits changing of employers with a general equilibrium analysis. There are two industries in Picture 6: one produces capital-intensive products G while the other produces labor-intensive products H. Three production factors are invested in these two industries separately: capital K, male labor Lm and female labor Lf. In the Edgeworth Box, the vertical axis represents the total capital stock and the horizontal axis represents the labor stock. 

 

 

There are two necessary assumptions. First, labors are not randomly distributed in two industries. At the beginning, all male workers are employed in industry G while all female workers are employed in industry H. The initial equilibrium is point A on the Pareto contract curve. The wages that male and female workers earn are the values of their marginal products, which are the same in the two industries. Capital owners (the employers) get normal profits. Wages of the two sections could not be lower than the corresponding marginal products levels, which is decided by Walras’ law, and quantity of employment could not be reduced. Second, female workers’ wages could not be lower than their “value” (their marginal product). Their lower payment is due to the low efficiency caused by discrimination. 

 

Introducing discrimination into this mode, there are two situations. First, reduce the wage in industry H to a level lower than its original marginal product; second, restrict the employment quantity of industry G. The former discrimination keeps the production of male industry G at the original level and reaches equilibrium point B. B is on the original isoquant curve G0 of industry G and the new contract curve too, which is more convex to lower left. In this situation, the production is of low efficiency. Because at point B, for female workers, the ratio of capital and labor decreases and the situation of women gets worsened; for male workers, the ratio of capital and labor increases and their situation improves. For employers, the situation might be improved or worsened, which is decided by the quantities of product G and product H they consume, because at this moment the relative prices of product H and product G changed. 

 

Point B is the only temporary equilibrium point. Since the change of wage and price in industry H causes the change of income price, the production of product G will reduce, but whether product H might increase or decrease is decided by the relative influence of income effect and substitution effect. Besides, related economic theories have proven that any difference of wages will lead to the decrease of efficiency and the reduction of gross production, thus the reduction of the production of product G does not necessarily mean the increase of the production of product H. In this case, a new equilibrium point will appear at the top left, where the wages of both men and women will be higher than those at point B ( Men’s payment will always be higher than that at point A). Generally the situation of employers will be improved, unless the final equilibrium point is farther away from point B. Point C shows that if the equilibrium point keeps moving to the left of point C, the ratio of capital-labor will be higher than that at point A too. In this situation, the post-discrimination wage of women will be higher than that at point A (men’s wage will be much higher). Obviously, the allocations of factors and production and consumption are of low efficiency. Such an economic mode suffers a pure loss. 

 

Wages and employments become more and more competitive; and, wage and employment differences with deep historical origins widely exist in the market. Assumptions are far from enough to explain these discriminative behaviors clearly. Despite that the concepts rooted in cultures are hard to shake, the discriminated in the labor market are hard to resist and suffer a lot due to lack of endowments of resources. The strong discriminators control a great deal of resources endowments. They only suffer little damage and their preferences get extremely satisfied. The discrimination cost that the discriminated and discriminators born is out of proportion. The former bears more and the latter bears less. Though maximum efficiency is not realized in the market, but no matter employers, employees or clients, as long as their discriminative preferences exist, there are sure losses of benefits in some degree. Yet compared with the weak group, the strong group’s loss of benefits only takes up a small proportion of total consumption expenditure. Thus the market trend and direction dominated by the strong group make it hard to eliminate the deep-rooted bad discrimination behaviors. 

 

2.2 the interactive influence of human capital investment

 

Discrimination in employment is the main reason for the discriminative trend in human capital investment, which would increase social economic cost and reduce the efficiency of human capital investment. Such a low effective resources allocation establishes a vicious circle of “employment gender discrimination, human capital investment gender preference, and employment gender discrimination”. Employment discrimination not only reduces women’s employment rate, but also the human capital investment of enterprises and families to women. Thus no matter for enterprises or families or the society, little investment in women is all to the disadvantage to the optimization of female capital values. Since education investment to women is of great importance to the growth of children, it would badly harm the benefits maximization within families if the decision-making of female human capital ignores the irreplaceable role of women in housework management and children upbringing. From the perspective of the whole society, it also reduces social benefits level. 

 

Moreover, gender preference of human capital investment will naturally “encourage” gender discrimination, which is mainly shown in two aspects. First, the direct result of gender preference in human capital investment is the inferiority of women’s human capital accumulation compared with men. With existing gender discrimination, it is especially difficult for female employment, let alone promotion. Superficially, such exclusion is “reasonable”, because the “scale” of efficiency always tilt to the party with strong capital nature. The weaker party such as the female will be “undoubtedly” discriminated in employment. In the labor market the female as the discriminated are hard to resist and suffer a lot due to lack of endowments of resources. Second, the indirect result of gender preference in human capital investment is the reinforcement of women’s social role status. Along with the development of productivity, concepts of primary and secondary, superior and inferior, and noble and lowly, derive gradually between the two genders. Different from products and capital market, the labor market is deeply influenced by these social concepts. People’s knowledge of gender differences go far beyond physical and psychological limitations, among which more result from rigid social gender concepts, such as the orientation of superior men and inferior women. Factors like cultures and custom influence people’s concepts, which directly affect the gender preference in human capital investment, and further reinforce gender differences. 

 

Gender discrimination in employment makes female human capital investment lag far behind that of men; and, gender preference in human capital investment limits the improvement of women’s capacity and further intensifies gender discrimination in employment…The economic and social costs along with this vicious circle are rather expensive. In terms of economic cost, women, who should have a higher rate of return on investment, get no or only limited investment (especially for society), it would naturally reduce the investment efficiency of human capital. On the other hand, since female human capital stock of China is lower than that of men, affected by the law of diminishing marginal returns of investment, the diminishing marginal returns of female human capital investment will be sharper, which is more consistent with the basic principles of economics. Wages are the embodiments of the values of productive factors, thus increasing investment in women’s education will bring more benefits to enterprises. In this case, over limited investment in female human capital is obviously against economic principles.

 

In terms of social cost, the interaction of these two phenomena will first influence the improvement of women’s status in families and in the society remarkably. Within families, difficult employment, low positions and poor capacities will frustrate and upset women, which is also easy to cause conflicts or even domestic violence due to poor economic situations. In fact, such cases are not unusual. In the society, the marginalization of women’s employment positions and the difficulty to improve their capacities will easily lead to their marginalization in political and social fields, and push them to a permanent weak group. On the perspective of long-term development, this is against the social progress; besides, on the short-term perspective, it also goes against the construction of a harmonious society. Secondly, the interaction of these two phenomena will affect the improvement of population quality in the future. As illustrated above, women’s education is closely related with the physical health of children. In fact, the influence of women’s quality on children is far beyond this. Children’s intelligence development and education quality are also important aspects being affected. In this sense, shortage of investment in female human capital is rather negative to the progress of the whole society.⁸

 

 

3.1 the meaning of women’s human rights

 

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Article 2 stipulates that “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” According to these stipulations, both men and women have rights of freedom and equality, which as fundamental rights should never be deprived or divided. The concept of “women’s human rights” is first formally put forward in Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, which asserts that “The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The human rights of women should form an integral part of the United Nations human rights activities, including the promotion of all human rights instruments relating to women.” Women’s human rights are the basic rights or freedoms of women, which guarantee their fully and free development in morals, spirits, personalities and other aspects and are admitted and protected by law. ⁹  

 

Women’s right of equal employment is an important part of women’s human rights. As for the definition of the right of equal employment, there are two theories, the broad meaning and the narrow meaning. The broad meaning theory holds that the right of equal employment refers to the right that all subjects enjoy to obtain employment opportunities equally and to earn labor payment equally.10 It includes equal opportunities, equal conditions and equal results in employment. The broad meaning theory defines the right of equal employment in the whole process of career activities from job-hunting to the formation of labor relationships. Yet the narrow meaning theory holds that the right of equal employment only refers to equal employment opportunities in the phase of job-hunting.11 What’s mentioned in this article is women’s right in a broad meaning. Women with qualified work capacities and work desires have equal identities and just treatment with men in the labor market. They have the right to be employed on a competitive basis with men in equal employment conditions and to obtain work payments equally with men. 

 

3.2 protection of women’s right to work 

 

Women’s rights have long been ignored and excluded in social history. In this way, the wording of women’s human rights in international society highlighted the emphasis on the protection of women’s rights. Though equal employment and payment acts have been passed in many countries since 20th Century, women still suffer from discrimination in fields like the labor market. Chinese women’s right to work is no exception. Since the establishment of new China, many laws and regulations have been made. Yet due to the defects of laws and bodies, discrimination on women’s right to work has not been totally eliminated. On a broader meaning, the final establishment of socialist market economy calls for sound laws and regulations to guarantee the realization of equal employments of men and women, to promote the harmonious and steady development of the society.

 

3.2.1 the revelation of foreign policies on protection of women’s right to work

 

With half a century’s development, policies to protect women’s labor right in EU, US and UK have become rather mature. To study their experiences is of great importance to improve policies on equal employment of China. Their experiences on anti-discrimination in employment are as follows.

 

First, they all experienced a development from simple payment protection to equal treatment protection on various aspects. Equal pay for equal work is a progress of human society. Yet single legislation could not reach the due effects in practices. Chapter 7 of the US Civil Rights Act (1964) largely expands the contents of equal right to work for men and women. Men and women have equal rights in employments, payments, work conditions and other treatments. The employers should carry out no discriminative behaviors. European Social Charter, Directives on Principle of Equal Treatment and Directives on Social Securities of EU, and Gender Discrimination Act of UK also enrich the contents of equal right to work for men and women. 

 

Second, to realize fair payments in the labor market, they all started from the legislature on equal pay for equal work and developed to equal pay for equal value. As stated, in the Treaty of Rome in 1957 EU had mentioned the principle of equal pay for equal work. US enacted the Equal Pay Act in 1963. Yet legislations on equal pay for equal work are far from enough to protect the legal interests of women. Thus EU established the principle of equal pay for equal value in Directives on Equal Pay, which was adopted by the US in 1970s. This is rather effective to eliminate the unequal pay for men and women. 

 

Third, enhance legislations on maternity protection. Maternity protection is an important circle in realizing equal labor rights of men and women. The US Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978) clearly defined discrimination towards pregnant women as gender discrimination, and made a rather comprehensive protection of pregnant women including various employment interests such as appointment, promotion and benefits etc.. EU Pregnancy Directive, UK Labor Protection Act, UK Employment Rights Act, UK Rules on Parental Leave and Labor and Employment Act also have similar contents. 

 

Fourth, particular organizations are set up to promote the implementation of equal employment. To prohibit employment discrimination, the US established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and clarified its frame and duties in related legislations; EU set up Equal Opportunities Commission and Social Security and Living Standards Committee respectively to take charge of the implementation of employment, labor relations and social securities. The Equal Opportunities Commission in the UK also undertakes special responsibilities against discriminations in employments and human rights affairs. The specialization of implementation organizations is beneficial to enhancing the performance of policies and to improving the policy results.

 

2. the deficiencies of legal protection for women’s labor right in China

 

Since the founding of new China, the government has attached high emphasis on the issue of “gender equality” and made a series of laws to protect the interests of women, which have played an important role in practice. However, along with the development of social economy, these laws gradually lagged behind relatively, which calls for improvement in implementation and practices. 

 

First, many laws in China are lagging behind in lack of clear definition of human rights. A whole set of laws, regulations and policies has been formed primarily protecting women’s interests and promoting women’s development. It takes the Constitution as the basis and the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights as the main body and includes many laws such as the Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care, the Law on the Protection of Minors, the Outline Program for Development of Chinese Women, the Regulation on Female Workers’ Health Care and the Regulation on Labor Protection of Women. Along with the improvement of women’s rights protection bodies, it lays a sound foundation for women’s development in laws. 

 

However, many provisions of the laws mentioned above lack specific practical instructions and compulsory punishments on violations. For some key behaviors which are easy to arouse conflicts, there are no clear legal definitions. For some behaviors which ignore laws there are no adequate constraints and punishment measures. Take the Labor Law as an example. There are many principle provisions, which mainly state legislative intention, emphasize the declaration, outlines and flexibilities and yet lack pertinence and practicability. It only stresses the description of legal scope and results. Some provisions are too ambiguous to implement. With the rapid development of socialist market economy and the diversification of economic components, some provisions of the Labor Law have lagged behind and are not applicable to the actual conditions of women. 

 

Second, there are problems in implementation of the existing laws, such as the lack of punishment and supervision, the narrow popularization of laws and the omission of enforcement etc., which is unfavorable to maintain and protect women’s labor right. Remedies provided by laws for discrimination against women’s human rights mainly include an order to correct, an administrative sanction and fines, etc.. The order to correct and the administrative sanction are only available to government organs, state-owned enterprises and other units with administrative establishments. Thus their functions in protecting female workers are rather limited. Yet there is no clear standard for the number of fines and civil compensations in laws. Since it’s hard to evaluate and define the harms caused by discrimination in employment, and the lack of specific standards causes difficulties for practices, in some degree the authority of laws has been highly cut back.

 

Third, there lacks specific bodies for enforcement. At present, the main departments in China promoting gender equality include the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the State Council Working Committee on Women and Children, the All-China Women’s Federation and related judicial departments, among which there is no specific institution in charge of discrimination or equal employment promotion. As a result, when it comes across issues of employment discrimination, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is unable to solve them rapidly and efficiently, nor can it attaches special attention to gender discrimination in daily work. The State Council Working Committee on Women and Children is founded on Feb. 22, 1990. It’s a deliberation and coordination agency of the State Council in charge of the issues of women and children. Its main duties are to coordinate and promote laws, regulations and policies on women and children and develop programs for women and children, yet limited to the above. The All-China Women’s Federation and women’s federations at all levels represent and protect the interests of women of all ethics and fields. According to the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights, when their legal interests are harmed, women can complain to the women’s federations; and, the latter can ask related agencies to investigate to protect the legal interests of women. Besides, women’s federations also provide legal consultations. However, since women’s federations are only non-governmental organizations, and lack the coercive force, their functions in protecting women’s interests and promoting gender equality could not be played to the most. 

 

Allowing for the specialty of gender discrimination cases and the complexity of identification, specific bodies should be founded to handle these issues. In related supervision agencies in China, there is no specific agency to promote equal employment opportunities, nor specific agency to implement and solve the issues of gender discrimination, which now are decentralized into different agencies and are rather confusing. While suffering from discriminations in employment, women usually have no idea of how to solve the problems efficiently and conveniently. According to the current situations in China, when suffering from discriminations, women can either initiate arbitrations within the short time given, which usually needs a long time waiting from arbitration proceedings to judicial processes; or solve the problem through pressures given to the employers by women organizations and mass media. These two ways of remedies leave women silent before discriminations.

 

 

Equal employment of women can promote social fairness and justice. A fair society should respect the dignity of each individual and protect the freedom and equality of everyone. Gender discrimination in employment and social gender segregation deprive women of equal labor right, and further more opportunities to participate in social activities, which is against the principles of fairness and justice and will further lead to social injustice and poor efficiency in market. In this way, measures should be taken to protect women’s labor rights effectively and ensure their freedom and equality in labor market.

 

4.1 improve laws and regulations on women’s labor rights protection

 

Current legislation in China has already emphasized the protection on women’s employment right. Yet due to the lack of provisions on employment discrimination and various problems in enforcement, it is necessary to improve current laws and regulations to enhance the practicability. 

 

The work for the improvement should include at least five parts. First, make and improve the Labor Law. Measures should be taken to enforce current laws. Specific compensation provisions should be made to increase punishments to strengthen the special protection of women. Second, improve the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, emphasize the authority of legislation and the responsibilities and duties of governments, society and schools on eliminating discrimination and protecting the rights and interests of the weak group. Third, improve the Regulation on Labor Protection of Women to further safeguard women’s equal employment right, maternity right, healthcare right and other legal rights. Fourth, improve women’s maternity insurances and the socialization of maternity protection. The special cost of female workers should be shared among various subjects, thus an employment environment favorable to women could be created. Besides, the scope of maternity insurance should be broadened. Traditional maternity leave mode should be changed. Men and women share the responsibility of maternity, thus special leave should be given to men to fulfill the responsibility together with women. Fifth, improve labor disputes arbitration rules, including improving collective dispute resolution mechanism and reforming labor dispute arbitration and its proceedings etc..

 

4.2 establish specific women’s rights protection bodies

 

In recent decades, establishing specific women’s rights protection bodies has become a trend in many countries. Specific bodies such as “Equal Opportunity Committee” were set up and endowed with great power to mediate labor disputes and issue binding orders. On Jan. 29, 2001, South Korea established the Ministry of Gender Equality. Its main duties are to make and coordinate gender policies at the governmental level, carry out gender analysis and evaluation, eliminate gender discrimination and violence towards women; investigate and correct gender discrimination in employment, education, resources allocation, facilities and services; and, explore cooperation with non-governmental organizations and international organizations. In 2003 South Korea established Women’s Policy Coordination Committee directly answering to the Prime Minister to take charge of the making and amending of gender policies. The US established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate discrimination complaints and to initiate lawsuits on behalf of the complainants. The establishment of EEOC enhances the federal government’s capacity to implement laws on equal employment.

 

There are no such quasi-judicial bodies like EEOC in China at present. Specific women’s rights protection bodies should be set up to enhance the government’ responsibilities to protect women’s human rights, which should be included into the priorities of governments at all levels. Moreover specific gender equality policy evaluation and supervision bodies also need to be established. While evaluating and supervising the making and implementing policies of the state and governments at all levels on equal participating in politics, economy, social activities and cultural activities, gender equality in labor market should be taken as an important content. Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the All-China Women’s Federation and the Trade Union should cooperate to found a supervision body on equal employment, which could take EEOC of the US as an example to carry out active supervision on equal employment. Employers with certain scales should report to it periodically. Moreover, it can receive reports and complaints, make reviews on gender ratio in employment termly and punish gender discrimination behaviors timely to actually safeguard women’s right of employment.

 

4.3 enhance legal supervision on women’s labor right protection

 

Rapid development of market economy and increasing employment pressure inevitably arouse the issue of employment discrimination, which calls for labor security supervision bodies to comply with specific situations to strengthen law enforcement to protect female workers from employment discrimination and maintain fairness and justice of employment. Moreover, despite of legal supervision of specific bodies, supervision of other bodies, such as national organs, social organizations and individuals, should also be strengthened. In this way the employers are supervised to implement laws on labor securities from all aspects to avoid infringe women’s labor rights.

4.4 strengthen international cooperation to increase the level of women’s labor right protection in China

 

Women’s labor right protection of China should base on domestic social situations, learn from successful cases of western developed countries and strengthen international cooperation following international conventions. According to comprehensive study of domestic problems, an overall plan should be made to establish a legal system to increase the level of women’s labor right protection in China and provide real and effective legal protection. 

 

                                                (translated by Zhang Kai)

 

· Zhang Kangsi, professor and PhD Tutor of School of Economics Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE), researcher at Research and Education Center of Human Rights of DUFE.

 

· 1. Ansel M. Sharp, Charles A. Register, Paul W. Grimes, Economicc of Social Issues, translated by Guo Qingwang, China Renmin University Press, 2000, p150.

 

· 2. Sources: Li Chunling, “Status Quo and Development of Occupational Gender Segregation in China”, Jiangsu Social Sciences, Vol.3, 2009.

 

· 3. Sources: 2009 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Executive Officers and Top Earners.

 

· 4. Chen Zhili, “Address at the Opening Ceremony of the Social Influence of Outstanding Female Talents during 60 Years of New China Forum”, China Women’s News, Dec. 14, 2009.

 

· 5. Wang Cuntong, Yu Jiao, Glass Ceiling Effect: Gender Differences in Career Promotion, Collection of Women’s Studies, Vol.6, 2013.

 

· 6. Chen Yongwei, Zhou Yi, Career Choices, Gender Discrimination and Wage Differences--An Analysis Based on Chinese Labor Market, Studies in Labor Economics, Vol.1, 2014.

 

· 7. [UK] Gary S. Becker, the Economic Approach to Human Behavior, translated by Wang Yeyu et. al, Shanghai Joint Publishing Press, Shanghai People’s Publishing House,pp 25-35.

 

· 8. Zhang Kangsi, Analysis on the Interaction Between Gender Discrimination in Employment and Human Captical Investment Preference, Journal of Zhejiang University (Social Sciences), Vo. 6, 2009.

 

· 9. Wang Bo, Legal Protection on Contemporary Women’s Human Rights Realization in China, Law and Economics, Vol.5, 2012.

 

·10. Deng Youwen, Theoretical System of Equal Employment --- on the Constitutional Meaning, Journal of Chongqing Technology and Business University (Social Sciences), Vol.6, 2007.

 

·11. Wang Bin, Theoretical Analysis on Prevention of Prior Discrimination --- on Equal Employment, Academics, Vol.5, 2010.