Difficulty finding employment for women is a topic frequently mentioned by the media and the public.

How to solve this problem, different people have different ideas.

　　Zhao Dongling, a deputy to the National People's Congress, suggested that the state should bear part of the losses and burdens caused by the employment of women of childbearing age, childbearing age and pregnant women for enterprises.

　　Zhao Dongling believes that most of the costs of many laws and policies to protect women of childbearing age, childbearing age and pregnant women are borne by enterprises. As a result, the willingness of enterprises to accept women of childbearing age and childbearing age is decreasing.

　　It's not so much sexism as it's economic calculation

　　This suggestion by Zhao Dongling directly points to the core of modern women's employment difficulties.

When it comes to female employment difficulties, there are always some people who see it as gender discrimination.

In my opinion, this kind of sexism is not based on morals, but economics.

　　The reason why it is difficult for women to find employment is because women play an increasingly important role in modern society, or it is precisely the increasingly important roles that lead to more and more role conflicts.

Not only do they have to take on responsibilities in the workplace, but they also play a more important role in the family than men: even if men are in other ways as devoted as women, the two functions of fertility and breastfeeding are not provided by men. .

　　Responsibility means giving, and more responsibility means more giving.

Within a certain period of time, women can only devote their time to the family and cannot take care of the workplace, while the employer must undertake the responsibilities required by the law.

　　It is also true that many employers are more inclined to hire male employees when hiring employees.

This discrimination has nothing to do with morality, but stems from economic calculations.

　　Academia has long noticed this problem.

In 2012, the World Bank published its annual report on world development, titled "Gender Equality Matters to Development," arguing that differences in economic opportunities between men and women are driven in part by differences in their use of time, which The usage patterns are derived from the social conventions that men and women have different divisions of family care and household chores.

Changing these practices and freeing up more time for women to engage in economic activity will require attention to three areas of policy: childcare and parental leave; infrastructure improvements; and policies to reduce transaction costs associated with market activity.

　　In fact, modern society has adopted some systems to alleviate the conflict between individual employees and employers. For example, the maternity insurance in the "five social insurances and one housing fund" is a compensation for female employees who cannot participate in work during childbirth.

Maternity insurance is not limited to female employees, but an expense that all employees need to pay.

Before the combined payment of maternity insurance premiums and workers' basic medical insurance premiums, many provinces and cities paid 0.8-1% of workers' wages.

　　However, as Zhao Dongling said, "There are many laws and policies to protect women of childbearing age, childbearing age, and pregnant women, and most of the cost is borne by the enterprise", and the cost of maternity insurance is completely borne by the enterprise.

The cost of maternity insurance is actually only a small part of the cost of the enterprise.

However, it can be used to analyze the success or failure of relevant regulations.

　　On the one hand, it is required to pay maternity insurance regardless of gender, which reflects gender equality and reduces the behavior of companies only recruiting men and not women at the employment level; but on the other hand, all costs are borne by the company, making the company burdened too heavy.

As a result, companies do everything possible not to hire women of childbearing age, or try to dismiss women of childbearing age, resulting in women's lower and lower willingness to bear children.

　　Therefore, promoting gender equality requires the joint efforts of business, government and society.

　　Setting up a fund, taking maternity leave together: Equality for equality

　　Funds similar to maternity insurance cannot be borne only by enterprises. The government can bear the relevant costs together with enterprises by setting up corresponding funds.

To a certain extent, the society is the beneficiary of reproductive behavior, and the family is only the cost center of fertility.

Therefore, the relevant costs should be borne by the whole society, and fiscal expenditure is due.

　　At the same time, in order to reverse the discrimination against women in the workplace due to different use of time, it is conceivable that many vacations that were previously limited to women will also benefit men. For example, men also enjoy the same as women or considerable maternity leave.

　　In fact, many countries have already achieved fruitful practices in this area.

On January 1, 1995, Sweden promulgated the "Parental Leave Act", which stipulated that both parents have 30 days of paid leave; at the same time, it also proposed that the man's 30-day leave is non-transferable and "useless".

　　In other words, if Dad forgoes vacation or doesn't take a month off, the family loses one month of the government's paid allowance.

It is this disguised policy of forcing men to take parental leave, which has led more and more men to leave their jobs and go on vacation.

　　Sweden's approach has been followed by more and more countries.

According to the Center for World Policy Analysis at UCLA, 109 countries around the world offer parental leave to fathers, 47 countries offer more than four weeks of parental leave, and many richer countries offer more than 12 weeks.

Twenty countries, including Japan, Canada and Sweden, have more than a year to choose.

　　Coincidentally, recently, Xie Wenmin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of Hubei Shouyi Law Firm, suggested that men should also accompany women who give birth to compulsory maternity leave for one month.

Although Commissioner Xie's starting point is to let men share the responsibility of raising children, in my opinion, such paid paternity leave will also change the discrimination against women - because both men and women need to give time for childbirth.

　　Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to timing, given the differing financial capabilities of different regions.

But in regions with lower fertility rates and stronger fiscal revenues (the two roughly coincide), more vacation and time can be given.

　　The Paper Special Commentator Fu Weigang