Gender equality and diversity in the workplace should be given
due consideration when China's top legislature meets to discuss the
draft law on employment promotion later this year, said a senior
female campaigner yesterday.
Technical expertise will be provided through seminars and
discussions on the "specific wording" of the draft law when the
legislature department meets, said Zhang Youyun, deputy director of
the China Association of Employment Promotion under the Ministry of
Labor and Social Security.
To promote equal employment for men and women, the government
must play a key role in making its legal framework and social
justice employment laws more gender-sensitive, she said.
Zhang made the remarks at a workshop that summarized a four-year
project on enhancing gender diversity in China, which was jointly
launched by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and its four
Chinese constituents.
Launched in August 2002 and completed in April 2006, the project
was carried out under the so-called "3+1" mechanism, which included
input from the government, workers, labor organizations, employers
and employer organizations, according to Constance Thomas, the
director of ILO Office for China.
Supported by the ILO, four project teams were set up with the
participation of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the All-China Federation of
Trade Unions, the China Enterprise Confederation and the
All-China Women's Federation (ACWF); and a
project network was also established at a provincial level.
Statistics indicate there were 337 million female employees in
China by the end of 2004, accounting for 44.8 percent of the total
workforce.
(China Daily April 5, 2006)