Interviews can't bypass marriage or fertility issues

How to crack female employment discrimination

□ Pu Xiaolei, reporter of this newspaper

Liu Lian, a 33-year-old Beijing citizen with nine years of experience in education and training, was ignored by recruiters during interviews, "The focus of HR (human resources) is not on my ability and experience, but on asking for basic personal information like 'checking my household registration', asking me if I am married and if I have children."

After interviewing several companies, Liu Lian was a little frustrated and angry, "After a round of questions, some companies clearly said that I was not suitable for the position, some companies asked me to go back and wait for the notice and then there was no follow-up, and some companies offered a very low treatment to 'force' me to give up." I asked many female friends around me who have also encountered such gender discrimination in the employment process."

In recent years, women have repeatedly suffered employment discrimination due to factors such as marriage and childbirth in the process of employment. With the improvement of the relevant legal system and the strengthening of law enforcement, some explicit employment discrimination has been effectively curbed, but the hidden discrimination in the job search process has made many women helpless.

In an interview with the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter, a number of NPC deputies and experts suggested that the method of "unblocking and combining" should be adopted to encourage employers to create an equal employment environment for men and women, and also strengthen punishment for gender discrimination.

Sixty percent of women are asked about marriage and childbearing in their job searches

For Liu Lian's experience, Wang Fan, who is looking for a job in Shanghai, feels the same way. In half a month, 28-year-old Wang Fan interviewed more than a dozen companies, and was asked a lot of questions about marriage when applying for a job, "Some are directly asked, when do you plan to get married?" Others are side-knocking, asking where the boyfriend is and what he does. ”

At first, Wang Fan felt that these problems were a little "inexplicable", until he asked a friend who was an HR in a certain company, Wang Fan understood the "routine" hidden behind these problems - HR can roughly judge the relationship status and birth planning of female job seekers through the side tapping of the marriage situation, and then decide whether to hire.

The experience of Liu Lian and Wang Fan is not uncommon in the process of women's job search.

According to the "2022 Workplace Women and Men Gender Gap Data Report" released by a recruitment platform, although the status of women in the workplace has improved in recent years, nearly eighty percent of women still believe that "gender equality" has not been achieved, and are vulnerable to workplace discrimination such as "being asked about marriage or childbirth at the interview stage".

Feng Fan, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of Grandall Lawyers' (Nanchang) Office, pointed out that with the improvement of the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests and the enhancement of women's awareness of rights protection, although the phenomenon of occupational gender discrimination has decreased, it still exists in some regions and fields. For example, some units clearly require that only male employees be recruited when recruiting, and there will still be discrimination against women in the selection of advanced, career promotion, and job distribution.

Unfair treatment of women is caused by multiple reasons

In recent years, a series of targeted laws, regulations and policies have been introduced from the central to the local level to improve the discriminatory chaos of women's workplace employment.

In 2019, nine departments, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Education, jointly issued the Notice on Further Standardizing Recruitment Practices to Promote Women's Employment, proposing to prohibit gender restrictions in recruitment. The Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests was amended in 2022 to clarify the specific circumstances of gender discrimination in employment, which came into force on January 1 this year.

All localities are also following up and exploring to refine the protection of women's rights and interests, including employment. In January this year, the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau issued the "Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Administrative Punishment Discretionary Benchmark Table (Involving the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests)", which stipulates that employers who refuse to recruit (hire) women on the grounds of sex, or differentially raise the recruitment (employment) standards for women, or reduce the wages and benefits of female employees due to marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave, breastfeeding, etc., may be fined up to 1,<> yuan.

Fang Yan, a deputy to the National People's Congress and director of Beijing Jincheng Tongda & Neal (Xi'an) Law Firm, noted that in recent years, China has achieved some good results in female employment, but there are still a large number of women who will encounter various obstacles in the job market, and even receive various unfair treatment, and the reasons for this phenomenon are many.

For example, women often need to take on a lot of family affairs and take care of children after marriage. This makes women less competitive in the job market, making it difficult to find good jobs, and the road to the workplace is more difficult than that of men.

"Regardless of the reason, once the discrimination against women's employment occurs, it should be seriously dealt with and severely punished in accordance with the law, so as to build a more inclusive employment atmosphere and a friendlier workplace environment for women." Fang Yan said.

Unblock and solve the hidden gender discrimination in the workplace

"Employers should regulate recruitment behavior in accordance with the law and eliminate maternity discrimination encountered by women in the process of job search, but providing a good employment environment for women is not only the responsibility of employers, but requires the joint efforts of the whole society." Fang Yan said.

Fang Yan proposed that in order to encourage employers to hire female employees, the state or local governments can give incentives and preferential policies to employers that actively respond to the "three-child" policy and actively hire women, such as tax exemptions and evaluations. These incentive measures can directly or indirectly hedge the increase in employers' labor costs, thereby curbing the declining trend of employers' willingness to recruit female employees of childbearing age.

As early as 2012, the Xi'an Women's Development Plan (2011-2020) mentioned that employers are encouraged to absorb women into employment, and enterprises with a female employment ratio of more than 40% are exempted from tax. Fang Yan suggested that on this basis, according to the employment characteristics of the industry to which the employer belongs, tax incentives should be given to employers that employ women of childbearing age who have a certain proportion of employment. For employers who establish infant and toddler care institutions, the state may give financial subsidies and support.

Tu Hongyan, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Wanshili Group, suggested that the tax reduction policy for enterprises be implemented, and when calculating the taxable income of enterprise income tax, certain deductions should be given according to the salary, maternity allowance, job vacancy filling expenses and other related expenses paid by the enterprise during the leave period of female employees during the maternity period. At the same time, a "maternity fund" has been set up, the maternity insurance system has been improved, and a certain degree of tax reductions, financial subsidies and fund subsidies have been granted to enterprises employing more than a certain percentage of female employees.

To solve the hidden gender discrimination in the workplace, we must strengthen the "blocking" while "loosening".

Lin Yi, vice chairman of the All-China Women's Federation and secretary of the Secretariat, suggested that the newly revised Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests be well implemented. The newly revised Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women focuses on the elimination of gender discrimination in employment, and clarifies the situation, redress channels and legal responsibilities of gender discrimination in employment. It is recommended that the Regulations on Labor Security Supervision and other supporting laws, regulations and policies be amended in a timely manner, include gender discrimination in employment into the scope of labor security supervision, and guide all localities to strengthen the supervision of gender discrimination in recruitment, admission, promotion, promotion, training, dismissal and other links.