As 2018 China Women Leadership Forum held to celebrate International Women’s Day, survey finds wage gap has decreased but still significant
Date:
Beijing, China — Despite recent gains, China’s female workers still lag significantly behind men in wage levels and company leadership positions, a survey by a recruitment firm has found. That sobering news came at an event to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Zhilian Zhaopin’s “2018 Report on Women in the Workplace” said the wage gap has decreased by 8 per cent from last year but women’s overall income remained 22 per cent lower than that of men. This disparity is directly caused by the inadequate representation of women in positions of leadership, the report said. It said 67.1 per cent of female workers surveyed work as general employees; that’s 14.8 percentage points higher than for male workers. And 73.8 per cent of respondents said that men occupy each of the executive positions in their companies.The report said the biggest obstacle to women gaining promotion is missed career advancement opportunities due to marriage and childbearing. And it said the problem was that not that women invested less time in their work due to marriage and childbearing -- they did not -- but rather that they added household and family responsibilities on top of that workload. In fact, married women contribute 22 per cent more time to family and household matters than married men.
Zhilian Zhaopin presented the report at its annual China Women Leadership Forum, held on 6 March in Beijing to celebrate International Women’s Day. This year’s forum was jointly organized with UN Women and CCTV’s (China Central Television) Survey on Chinese Lifestyle and Economy. With the theme “More Than This,” the event encouraged working women to overcome traditional gender norms, prejudices and stereotypes, and everyone in society to help promote gender equality.
Eight leaders from different industries gathered to give voice to working women and ways to promote gender equality: UN Women China Country Program Manager Julie Broussard; Zhilian Zhaopin CEO Evan Guo; former women’s table tennis world champion Deng Yaping; Liu Tianchi, Professor of Performing Arts at the Central Academy of Drama; Long Yu, Jing Dong Group Chief Human Resources Officer and General Counsel, and Director General of the Jing Dong Public Welfare Foundation; Joy Chen, former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and author of the bestsellers Don’t Get Married Before 30 and Make the Most of Your 30s; Chen Anni, Founder and CEO of the Kuai Kan Comics Corporation; and LeBox Capital Founder Yang Ning.
Broussard said women face many obstacles to making full use of their leadership skills: social expectations arising from conservative gender roles, lack of equitable advancement opportunities, discrimination in earnings and other types of prejudice in the workplace. “Increasing women’s leadership bears great significance for global economic growth and sustainable development,” she said.
Guo spoke about the need to promote diversity in the workplace, and to stimulate women’s productivity and creativity. Yang said every entrepreneur must find their own strength and discover their core competency. Joy Chen said it was important for women to understand and respect themselves, and that “learning how to say no is extremely important”. Chen Anni shared her own experience as an entrepreneur and said that if women shed society’s expectations of them when starting a business, they can get to places which may have initially seemed unreachable.
Deng also used her own experience, in table tennis competition, to encourage women: “I want to try everything that life has to offer, even if I may encounter failure. But since I want to win, I must pass through each stage, push myself to the limit, and not fear the result.”
她世界·她力量
2018中国女性领导力高峰论坛
中国北京 — "她世界·她力量" 2018中国女性领导力高峰论坛于3月6日在北京举行，该论坛由联合国妇女署与智联招聘、央视财经中国生活经济大调查共同发起举办。此次活动的主题为"不止于此"（More than this), 鼓励职场女性跳出传统性别设定，勇于打破偏见和刻板印象，呼吁社会各界共同关注和推动性别平等。
联合国妇女署中国国别主任汤竹丽，智联招聘CEO郭盛，世界冠军邓亚萍，中央戏剧学院表演系教师刘天池，京东集团首席人力资源官兼法律总顾问、京东公益基金会理事长隆雨，美国洛杉矶前副市长、畅销书《30岁前别结婚》&《30岁趁势而为》作者陈愉，快看漫画创始人CEO陈安妮，乐搏资本创始人杨宁八位来自不同行业的领军人物共聚一堂为职场女性发声，共同探讨性别平等。
智联招聘在现场发布了《2018女性职场现状调研报告》。《报告》中显示， 职场中女性员工与男性员工的收入差距相较去年缩短了8%，但女性整体收入依然比男性低22%，导致这一差距的直接原因是领导岗位上女性的缺失。报告显示，被调查用户67.1% 的女性为普通员工/ 职员，比男性占比高14.8%；而在管理职位分布上，男性占比显著高于女性。73.8% 的受访对象表示其所在公司的高管由男性主导。75.2%的人认为所在部门中，经理级别以上的员工大部分是男性。在晋升障碍调研中发现，"处在婚育阶段，被动失去晋升" 成为女性升职的主要阻力，然而，《报告》发现女性并未因婚育减少在工作上的投入，并且同时在家庭上付出更多，已婚女性在家庭投入上比已婚男性高出22%。
面对这样的现状，八位演讲人纷纷提出了的看法。联合国妇女署中国国别主任汤竹丽在演讲中提到："影响女性领导力充分发挥的原因很多，既有社会对于男女传统性别角色的期待，也有缺乏平等晋升机会、同工不同酬等职场偏见。提高女性的领导地位对于全球经济增长，以及可持续发展意义重大。" 智联招聘CEO郭盛倡导职场多元化，激发女性的生产力和创造。乐搏资本创始人杨宁提倡创业者应找到自己的优势，发现自己的核心竞争力去创业。美国洛杉矶前副市长陈愉强调："了解自己，尊重自己。发展同理心并学会如何拒绝极为重要。"快看漫画创始人、CEO陈安妮分享自己创业的经历时提到："忘掉性别去创业，最终达到不可及的地方。" 中央戏剧学院表演系教师刘天池分享："生理年龄一定会衰弱，但是艺术生命可以逆生长。年龄并不能成为阻碍，生命不息，折腾不止。" 京东集团首席人力资源官兼法律总顾问、京东公益基金会理事长隆雨说到："成功没有统一的的定义和固定的模式，但需要保证自己的独立思考能力和快速学习的能力。"世界冠军邓亚萍也用自己的经历勉励职场女性："这辈子可以做的事，我一定要去试一试，哪怕可能面临的是失败。不过既然想赢，就需要把过程做好，做到极致，不畏惧结果。"