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Gender Discrimination

Since the establishment of the Chinese constitution, gender equality gained unprecedented importance for the Chinese state. Their efforts were focused towards extending women’s rights politically, economically, culturally and socially. For example, throughout the past few decades China integrated a series of laws and programs forbidding sex-selective abortions, protecting mothers' rights, improving the livelihood of girls, and criminalizing discriminatory employer practices. However, despite being a pillar of their constitution, gender equality failed to translate as effectively in practice. In multiple sectors of Chinese society women still face discrimination. First, the employment sector reveals several mechanisms disadvantaging women from an equal position in the work force. Notably, the rising wage gap, the reproduction of stereotypes in job opportunities, the confinement of women to lower paid posts, and the unfair practices of penalizing women for motherhood duties. The gender wage gap remains a tough struggle for China to conquer, with studies showing its continued rise rather than its decline– especially amongst lower income groups. This is partly due to the restricted employment opportunities offered to women– notably, their limitation to lower level administrative and sales jobs–, and to their greater lack of education . Additionally, while men are hired for their experience, women are employed for their youth, height, and attractiveness; consequently, further limiting them to stereotypical career choices. Furthermore, despite it being illegal, employers refuse to recruit women to avoid child bearing costs, or even fire women over their "inefficiency" during pregnancies. Similarly, the family sector reveals countless instances of discrimination against women in China. For starters, China still suffers from excess female child morality, as a result of the one child policy and sex-selective abortions, which favor sons over daughters. Although the practice is illegal, sons provide a greater cultural and economic advantage for Chinese families: they carry the family lineage, they support parents in old-age, and they generally dominate the family power structure. Additionally, even when daughters are born, they still face gender inequalities. Using Engel's curve, scholars measured the extent to which food shares per family rise during a male versus a female birth, and found that they increase significantly more for sons than daughters; thus, signaling the family's greater care and importance for male than female offsprings. The discrimination of women continues to be an important social issue for China to overcome, and is continuously affected by cultural, political, and economic factors.

Culturally, Confucianism has had an important impact in establishing women as "subservient", and men as dominant patriarchal figures. Politically, since the establishment of communist China, women have become valued as equals through the constitution. Economically, however, reforms have weakened the state's presence in the market, and consequently, also weakened their protection over women's rights. Thus, while political attempts have been made to empower women, cultural and economic traditions fuel gender discrimination in China. However, while many authors highlight the evidence for gender inequality, other scholars find opposite results claiming that Chinese society does not favor men . These contradicting claims are likely due to the complex nature of measuring gender discrimination; specifically, not accounting for factors such as: location, sector, or biological differences.

Lastly, Chinese society has a loud community of women's rights and feminist activists fighting against gender inequalities. Feminists in China speak out on issues of violence against women, employment inequalities, and discriminatory Chinese traditions and policies. Despite Chinese censorship laws, activists remain motivated to challenge gender discrimination, by relying on online social protests. For instance, in 2018 more than 30 million Chinese citizens participated in the #MeToo movement on social media platforms in order to raise awareness against sexual harassment. Thus, the internet has become an important tool for Chinese society to fight gender discrimination, and eradicate this social issue.