Equal employment? Still challenges to overcome in China

China is not a place short of changes. This country is going through such tremendous transformation that almost everyday,everyone living in this nation is trying hard to cope with. However, making changes or progress individually for women still faces particular challenges and barriers.For example, for many young talented Chinese women, how to balance work and family could be a tough issue.

One of my friends is an accomplished career woman. She holds a key HR position in a European chemical company in Shanghai at the age of 36 and she is quite an important asset to the company in her superior's opinion. However, she is not happy. She considers herself unseccessful in life since she is currently single because of a ugly divorce two years ago. "My parents called me unfaithful daughter because I don't give them a perfect family." She once told me. Even her career is somehow influenced by the marriage problem. At her mid-30's, divorced with no children, she was just refused by a better-paid job at another company because the employer there thought her contribution to their organization might not be stable. "They are afraid that I might get into the company and then start looking for opportunities to get married and have children which will take a couple of years off work with their payment." My friend is quite clear of the reason behind the denial but she cannot do anything to change it. She is not the only one.

Similar stories happens all the time. Although equal working opportunities are no longer a problem for Chinese women generally speaking. There are, still, hidden agenda in the arena of employment that prevents women to pursuit their dreams without being treated differently from men. Individually, career women in China are trying to break this barrier by working harder and helping each other. As a group effort, we are now publishing such stories through various media channels, especially on the internet, using Web2.0 technology.Social media is now a often used method to share opinions about the issue. On Weibo, the Chinese version of twitter, we exchange individual problems to be solved and seek professional advice on how to balance work and personal life. On websites such as linkedin, we build connections with other professional women to share experiences and provide each other with more opportunities. I am hoping that, with the help of Pulsewire, career women in China could learn and understand how women in other countries are dealing with similar career/family problems.By letting individual stories known worldwide, better solutions might come to us very soon. And for those women who faces the same dilemma as my friend, it is hopeful that they will not be refused by a good working opportunity for their personal marriage status.