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Sex bias in China}denouncedBEIJING (AP) — The head of China’s official women’s organization denounced sex discrimination in the workplace and politics and urged new efforts to fight it, an official report said yesterday.Chen Muhua, former head of the Bank of China and now head of the All-China Women’s Federation, used unusually strong language in her remarks.She said the federation should “justly and forcefully call out to fight for women’s legal rights and interests,” the official People’s Daily said.“To meet the new demands of the historical era, the Women’s Federation should reform its work and raise the women’s liberation movement to a new level,” the Communist party newspaper quoted Chen as saying in an interview with the magazine Party Building.Officials generally argue there is no need fora women’s liberation movement in China. They say the entire population, women included, was liberated in 1949 when the Communists took power from the Nationalists.However, the Women’s Federation has become increasingly outspoken in recent months. During that time, growing economic competition encouraged by senior leader Deng Xiaoping has been used as a reason for firing or not hiring women or denying them scarce university seats.High-quality labor groups“Many women workers have been fired as industries form ‘high-quality labor groups’ or sign contracts with their workers,” the paper quoted Chen as saying. “There are economic reasons for this, but it also has to do with attitude.The labor groups are one of the recent reform moves, involving reorganizing work forces into more efficient units and firing the unqualified.Official statistics indicate a majority of those fired are women.Chen said one reason for that problem is that factories don’t want to pay maternity leave.She was also quoted as saying women's representation in government is “extremely low, with women making up only one-fifth of the 2,97« delegates to the National People’s Congress, the legislature.According to Chen, discrimination often begins at birth and is reflected in a growing gap between boys and girls in officially registered births.Recent figures indicate more than 110 boy babies are registered for every 100 girls.She did not say whether she believed girl babies were not being registered or whether they were being aborted or killed after birth.Chinese families traditionally have preferred boys to girls, believing boys are more valuable as farm laborers and as supporters of their parents in old age.
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Mon, Mar 06, 1989
Page 35
Full Page
Clipped by
Susun W.
USA 24 Apr 2018
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