Chinese tech giants, government under fire for 'men
only' job ads
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[April 25, 2018]
By Cate Cadell
BEIJING (Reuters) - Top Chinese tech firms
and some government departments have been singled out in a report that
says discriminatory hiring practices based on gender are widespread in
China and are linked to a shrinking proportion of women in the labor
force.
Job ads posted by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Baidu Inc and Tencent
Holdings Ltd were among those that deterred female applicants or
objectified women, said Human Rights Watch in a report released on
Monday.
In many of the adverts, prospective employers boasted of "beautiful
girls" at their workplace as a selling point for new employees, while
others included specific height, appearance and temperament requirements
for women that were unrelated to the roles.
"We have investigated these incidents and are making immediate changes.
We are sorry they occurred and we will take swift action to ensure they
do not happen again," Tencent said in a statement.
An Alibaba spokeswoman said the company "will conduct stricter reviews
of the recruiting advertisements to ensure compliance with our policy."
A Baidu spokeswoman said the postings were "isolated instances".
The report comes amid a larger Chinese movement against gender-based
discrimination and harassment, buoyed by the global #MeToo movement,
which has since been heavily censored online in the country.
The #MeToo movement began last year as victims of discrimination and
sexual harassment took to social media to share their stories under the
hashtag #MeToo. Silicon Valley firms have since been accused of
discriminatory behavior, turning the focus on tech worldwide.
Human Rights Watch, which analyzed 36,000 Chinese job advertisements
largely posted since 2013, also criticized adverts for government roles,
construction workers and kindergarten teachers.
It said that so far in 2018, 19 percent of the Chinese civil service job
adverts it reviewed were "men only" or at least said men were preferred.
Only one job posting this year listed a preference for a female
candidate, it said.
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A woman is silhouetted
against the Baidu logo at a new product launch from Baidu, in
Shanghai, China, November 26, 2015. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
Reuters sent a fax seeking comment to the Ministry of Public Security, a bureau
mentioned in the report, but did not receive a response.
Some firms looked to avoid scrutiny of their practices, including using code
words to show a male preference, Human Rights Watch said. One used the Chinese
word for south, "nan", which in Chinese has the same pronunciation as the word
for "man", it said.
It added discriminatory hiring behavior was a key issue behind the relatively
low numbers of women in the workforce and growing gender disparity over urban
pay.
Chinese laws ban discrimination based on gender, but "enforcement is low and
Chinese authorities rarely proactively investigate companies that repeatedly
violate relevant laws," Human Rights Watch said in the report.
The country's #MeToo movement has, however, been gaining momentum on university
campuses since late last year, and several schools have cut ties with professors
amid claims of harassment and assault dating back decades.
The Human Rights Watch report received a muted response on Chinese social media
on Tuesday, with almost no posts commenting on the issue on popular microblog
platforms such as Alibaba-backed Weibo or Tencent's mobile chat app WeChat.
Chinese social media firms are often required to censor civil rights
discussions, including previous Human Rights Watch findings and posts related to
the #MeToo movement.
(Reporting by Cate Cadell; Additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by
Christopher Cushing)
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