http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180220-women-shouldering-cost-and-burden
As we all know, in recent decades China has established itself as a world economic power after it began its transition from a communist model to a capitalist system. These reforms have brought benefits for their population because it has allowed them access to opportunities and freedoms that were restricted in the previous system. However, there has been an important social cost for women who are the ones who have had to assume the burden of moving from a planned economy to a market economy.
In this article, the author Zhang Lijia analyzes how the participation of women in the labor market of the new China has deteriorated. While in the 70s 90% of women of working age were employed, in this decade only 45% of Chinese women have a job. In addition, currently the average salary of women corresponds to only 67% of that of men.
And why does this situation arise? Because with the opening of markets came many private companies which use unscrupulous practices towards female workers in China. So for example many companies refuse to hire women of child bearing age and sometimes if a woman gets pregnant, they fire her. Even in some cases, they force women to write that “in the next ten years I promise I will not have children”. In this way, China went from a state that defended gender equality to a system of open sexism.
I find this analysis interesting because generally when we talk about economic systems and the advantages of capitalism over communist systems we do not think about gender issues and the case of China is a clear example that despite having a successful economic growth this it has not translated into better social conditions for their women.