A draft law published on Friday includes a ban on mentioning the preference of one gender over another in job advertisements, and asking job applicants about their marital status if they are married or pregnant.
The rapid economic growth of the past four decades, along with the one-child law, has created more educational and employment opportunities for Chinese women.
However, women’s participation in the labor market declined due to gender-based discrimination in employment, and more women tended to take care of their families amid a severe lack of affordable childcare services.
A June Human Rights Watch report found that one in five civil service jobs in 2019 favored male applicants.
The report stated that it is a common practice for employers, including schools, to force female employees to sign contracts pledging not to become pregnant for several years as a prerequisite for employment, according to “AFP”.
The proposals for new laws come amid concerns that new legislation on having three children will make employers more reluctant to hire women.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the proposed amendments would make the law easier to implement by clearly defining the crime of sexual harassment.
According to a draft text published Friday, the law prohibits “vulgar speech”, “indecent physical conduct” or “the display or publication of sexual images, information, text, audio or video clips.”
It also calls on employers to set up mechanisms to respond to, investigate and respond to these complaints “without delay”, but there were no details of penalties in the event of failure to do so.
It is worth noting that proposals for amendments to the draft law are open to the public until January 22, 2022.
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