Across the world, gender discrimination has always been an important issue, be it at a workplace or home. But what if there is widespread discrimination before joining the workplace? Yes, this is exactly what is happening. According to a report recently released by Human Rights Watch (HRW), gender discrimination in job recruitment continues to be a huge issue, and this has led to a decrease in the proportion of Chinese women working. It puts light on an important issue that the job postings in China are extremely 'sexist' and the worst part is, top employers like Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei and Baidu in the country are using such derogatory ads.
Watch the ads that talk about gender discrimination in job postings by Chinese giants:
A few years back, Alibaba had to remove a job application that sought women with "porn-star qualities. HRW has pointed that, Alibaba openly states the preference for male candidates and only uses the appearances of female employees to attract male applicants. However, the company defended their stand and said that they follow one of the best practices in the industry when it comes to gender equality because, in their company, women comprise of one-third of its management policies.
In the report, names of other tech giants were also mentioned, like Tencent, which runs China's most prominent messaging app, posted videos from their annual dinner that showed female staff trying to open water bottles tucked between men's legs with their mouths.The company apologised last year for it. Baidu was also picked up for their sexist ads and one of them being in which a male company employee said that the reason why he is so happy every day is because, he could "go to work with beautiful girls."
These ads are not only sexist but highly derogatory, where they are stereotyping the role of women in the society. According to a report on CNN, HRW wants the Chinese government to bring change in the current situation, by including new anti-discrimination law. It further urged companies to prohibit all forms of gender discriminatory ad postings and encourage women to join the workplace.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2018 04:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).