A Research Into The Issues Of Contemporary Chinese Women’s Employment

Employment is an important perspective to see through the economic rights andsocial status of women in a society. The employment of women is an important meansand safety for women to obtain and maintain their property rights. It is also aprerequisite to achieve gender equality and enhance the social position of women. Thestudy of the employment of women involves political, economic, legal, social, andcultural discipline. The overall picture of the employment of women can only bereflected through multi-perspective analysis.This paper chooses the industrial structure, role expectation, gender inequitiesand employment policy as the perspective to study the employment and the influentialfactors of contemporary Chinese women after the founding of our nation, respectivelyfrom the aspect of economy, social culture, law, and policy. Accordingly the strategiesare proposed.In light of the influences of Chinese economic development to the employmentof women, this paper divides the employment of women into four stageschronologically: the transformation period, the transition period, the adjustmentperiod and the regrouping period. Based on the relevant statistics of employment, thefundamental conditions of women’s employment, the role expectation to women,gender discrimination faced by women in their employment and the correspondingpolicies of the government at every stage are discussed.By reflecting the development of women’s employment after the founding of ournation, the four aspects of factors affecting women’s employment are analyzed here.The first factor is the industrial structure and the quality of employment. With theupdating of industrial structure, the industrial structure of women’s employment isalso promoted. Women’s employment is turning to of high knowledge-intenseindustries. Compared with men, there is still a gap in professional levels, incomes.The second factor is the role conflicts and the difficulty of women’s employment. Dueto the rigid traditional culture of China, women are primarily granted with the socialrole of housewives to raise children and care for the family and their secondary role isto work. Thus the role conflicts are problems faced by working women, who need topay more to develop their industry. The third factor is the gender discrimination and the pressure of women employment. Out of the economic interest or personalpreference, the employers always look down upon women in the process of theemployment, including the enhanced standards for women in the employment and thecutting of chances in the training and promotion. The fourth factor is the policy andsafety of women’s employment. The employment policy is the most important meansof the government to regulate the labor market in market economy and maintain theequality of women in their employment. Our government has paid much attention tothe employment of women, and formulated series of regulations. But the currentregulations are not perfect and operative. Some lawsuit system for employmentdiscrimination and specific institutions for employment equality are absent.After the analyzing the main factors affecting Chinese women’s employment,this paper sums up the experiences of promoting women’s employment and thelessons we can learn from Britain, Japan, Canada and India. We can borrow fromthese four countries their characteristics in gender equality which will be helpful toour system and practice in legal and public policies upon Chinese women’semployment.Finally, strategies to promote Chinese women’s employment are proposed.Improving the legal system of anti-discrimination in employment and reinforcing theoperating property of law; making gender equality the mainstream of public decisionand promoting women’s employment; calling on social forces to support women’semployment and increasing the capital of women’s employment; perfecting thequalities of women and developing their working abilities are suggested respectively.In all, the employment of women is not a single and isolated problem, but a dynamicand complex system. In this process, the government can not be lacking; the justicecan not be absent; man can not be immoral; women can not be powerless.