{"id":9655,"date":"2015-03-08T18:40:54","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T19:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=9655"},"modified":"2015-03-06T02:40:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T18:40:58","slug":"china-capitalism-is-pushing-back-womens-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2015\/03\/08\/9655\/","title":{"rendered":"China: Capitalism is pushing back women\u2019s rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wage gap has widened and sex discrimination in the job market is rampant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vincent Kolo, chinaworker.info<\/p>\n

China Central Television\u2019s gala to celebrate the Lunar New Year is reportedly the most watched television programme in the world. It is broadcast live on 189 state-run channels and the viewing audience, despite falling in recent years, is more than 600 million people. The four-and-half hour spectacle is also shamelessly sexist, with this year\u2019s programme aired on 18 February hitting a new low in the opinion of women\u2019s rights activists and many others who have spoken out on China\u2019s vast but tightly policed social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gala shamelessly discriminated against and made fun of women. Are the directors taking us back to imperial times when women had to bind their feet?\u201d This was just one of thousands of angry posts on Weibo, China\u2019s version of twitter, after this year\u2019s gala. A feminist inspired petition has slammed the show as \u201cpoisonous\u201d pointing out it made 44 jokes at the expense of\u00a0women\u00a0\u2013 single women as \u201cleftover\u201d and female civil servants as \u201cgold diggers\u201d (prepared to hop into bed with their male bosses to gain promotion). These protests are fresh evidence that a new generation of women activists is emerging in China, protesting against domestic violence and discrimination in the job market. In several cities female activists have staged protests by occupying men\u2019s toilets, to draw attention to the lack of facilities and longer queues for women. This, remember, is under a hardline dictatorship that clamps down fast on any protests.<\/p>\n

The furore surrounding the annual TV gala throws a spotlight on a much bigger problem. The social position of women is being pushed backwards as part of the wider social counterrevolution that has occurred in China, with capitalism replacing state planning and recreating rampant inequality between rich and poor, city and countryside, eastern and western regions.<\/p>\n

\"CCTV<\/a>
CCTV Spring Festival Gala sketch about \u201cmanly woman\u201d and \u201cfemale goddess\u201d.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wage gap widens<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe market economy has led to increased gender inequality since the 1990s,\u201d noted feminist writer Lijia Zhang (China File 11 June 2014). This is reflected in the widening wage gap between women and men, a development that runs counter to international trends where wage differentials have narrowed although they still disfavour women. According to official statistics urban women in China in 2010 earned on average 67.3 percent of men\u2019s earnings, down from 78 percent in 1990. In the countryside, women make just 56 percent of men\u2019s wages.<\/p>\n

Women white-collar workers face a wall of sexist attitudes and open discrimination. Even the New York Times (20 February 2015) acknowledges that, \u201cIn the office, Socialist-era egalitarianism has been replaced by open sexism, in some cases reinforced by the law.\u201d The newspaper quotes Chinese feminist Feng Yuan, \u201cWomen\u2019s status has not improved, and in some areas has regressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some facts that illustrate the negative trend:<\/strong><\/p>\n