Woman loses job opportunity due to marriage plans

Li Ran was confident when she handed in her resume, thinking her educational background was good enough for her prospective employer – she majored in pharmacy for her master's degree, exactly what the employer, a pharmaceutical enterprise wanted.

But then the question from the recruiter immediately threw her off--"Are you going to marry in the next two years?" Li Ran hesitated, and her resume was returned.

25-year-old Li felt wronged, and she thought the marriage question was actually about whether she was going to have any children. "Even if I get married at the age of 28, I won't have a baby until I'm 29, and for the second one I will be over 30," She said, "shouldn't a stable life be conducive to more efficient work?"

The recruiter who refused to be named said she totally understood Li Ran's life plan, but she would still reject her application "for the interest of the corporation".

"We've recruited women with master's degree who got married and then pregnant less than one year after they came," the recruiter said, "that's troublesome."

Li Ran is not alone. Many female graduates have been rejected by employers just because of their gender.

A survey conducted by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top advisory body, has found that 87 percent of recent female college graduates said gender discrimination still existed in the job-search process. Some enterprises are even blatantly specifying that "only men are wanted", while other employers are more subtle by simply rejecting or ignoring women's resumes, or raising the educational threshold for women.

This year, things could become even more complicated with the historic policy change of China lifting its decades-old one-child policy, allowing families to have two children.

Many China watchers worry that the shift could make gender discrimination in the workplace more prevalent, as companies may become reluctant to hire women, knowing they may take more time off to have children.

Much of the discrimination faced by women is contrary to existing laws. The Employment Promotion Act came into effect in 2008 banning gender discrimination. It also stipulated that labor contracts should not restrict female workers' marital and reproductive rights.

According to McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy firm, Chinese women contribute 41% of China's GDP, far outstripping most other neighboring Asian countries and on par with Europe and North America. The consultancy firm also recently estimated that if China achieved gender equality in the job market, women would contribute 50% of the GDP, an increase of 12% (an estimated 2.5 trillion US dollars).

Many people in China hold the belief that if a woman is determined to sacrifice her personal life to some extent, she may still climb up the career ladder, just as the recruiter from the original pharmaceutical enterprise said, "we would still give some thoughts to those who answered they wouldn't think about 'personal issues'."

Here is the dilemma facing many women in modern China: Fight for a career and then get branded as "sheng nyu", a title Chinese society "endows" unmarried, educated urban women, which means "leftover women"; or get married and be iced out by the boss.

So can Chinese women and society find a third way?

AbleMoJah® Nigeria.