When do people take off their "tinted" glasses?

With the spreading of the #MeToo movement, women's survival in the workplace is gradually coming under the spotlight. Even today, women still suffer from unequal treatment in the workplace.

Based on a questionnaire, 73.3% of people believe that there is discrimination on females promotion space, and 26.7% believe that there is discrimination against women's income. Moreover, 30% believe that sexual harassment is a kind of workplace discrimination.

"I have felt the malice of the workplace against women who are now thirty years old and unmarried," said Miss Liang from Shenzhen. She is a thirty-one-year-old single woman whose last company went out of business because of the pandemic. She has interviewed at a dozen companies since she lost her job, and at least seven of them asked her solemnly questions like “Do you have a boyfriend?” or “Do you have any plans to get married and have children shortly?”

Miss Liang said that some companies clearly expressed many position preferred men, which inadvertently cut the number of roles for women.

In addition, several women have been rejected by companies for appearance or body image reasons. "Last year, I was eliminated when I interviewed for a clerical position. When I inquired about the reason for elimination, I heard very hurtful words like “Fatty looks like two hundred pounds” and “Can she walk easily?” said Miss Jiang from Fujian. 

Miss Jiang believed the company, even with “Your image not meeting the requirements” for the reason to reject herself, is much better than those comments sound intolerable to the ear.

Miss Su from Zhejiang has worked in a financial position for three years. During this time, she felt that leadership always focused on men and cultivates them with significant works. "In the grass-root level, where such low-wage and tediously tasks are usually done by women. But those senior leaders, the proportion of men is significantly greater than women." Miss Su said that women rarely get the opportunity for promotion, and most fast promotions are for men.

They are perhaps only a tiny part of the crowd. However, all of them reflect the difficulties of women in the workplace. Even if women can find jobs, their path to the workplace will be even more difficult in the current situation.

(Author: Sylvia Chen)