Research On The Legal Protection Of Labor Rights And Interests Of Female Workers In China

As a reflection of women's economic and social status,the labor rights of female employees are closely related to not only the issue of employment equality but also the development of the theory of gender equality.In academia,with the rise of the feminist legal theory,which is evolved from the feminist doctrine,discussions as to the legal protection women's rights have begun.In this case,the legal protection of labor rights and interests of female employees have progressively been improved in many parts of the world.Nevertheless,the lack of protection or over-protection has always been the problem as it is hard to measure the propriety in relation to the attitude of the law and the degree of the protection.In this sense,the key may lie in the balance of the labor rights between genders.Legal feminism has been prevalent in western societies and studied less in China.Due to the fact that,today,laws of female labor rights in China are to a large degree referred from the pre-existing regulations whereas may be divorced from practice,some of them would prejudice the interests of female employees because of excessive protection while others could result in legal loopholes as they are too principled.Despite the scholars' attention paid to these problems,in Chinese academia,there are few studies conducted from the perspective of legal feminism.Moreover,the existing studies lack a comprehensive response to the legalprotection of labor rights and interests of female workers,therefore,are limited.Hence,this paper will firstly introduce the basic contents of legal protection of labor rights and interests of female workers,combined with the discussion of feminist legal theory's historyand the impacts of women's rights protection in the process of thetheory's development,and then illustrate and analyze the status quo in Chinese society in order to provide effective resolutions to the existing problems in respect of the legalprotection of female labor rights in China.In this sense,the paper's main point will be divided into four parts:Part I: Introducing the concept and categories of legal protection of labor rights and interests of female employees,and outlining the contents of this paper.Part II: Introducing one of the theoretical basis of female employees' labor rights and interests--feminist legal theory,including history,different kinds of doctrine of feminist legal theory,summarizing the positive and instructive impacts of the feminist legal theory on the legalprotection of female labor rights.Part III: Combined with the status quo ofthe legal protection of labor rights and interests of female workers in China,examining the problems remain in today's society in relation to the basic protection and the special protection.Part IV: Based on the problems discussed earlier,providing suggestions to better the legal protection of labor rights and interests of female employees in China including expanding the range of prohibitions regarding the employment sexual discrimination,strengthening the supervision of female labor rights in practice,improving the relevant judicial remedies,abolishing the list of “unsuitable jobs for female employees”,bettering the protection of female employees' special physiological periodandmaternity right,and progressively abandoning the distinction of retirement ages between male and female workers.