An Analysis of Women’s Work

 An Analysis of Women’s Work

     Identity originates from the process of identification which refers to the basic cognitive mechanism that human beings use to sort themselves out (Jenkins). In the current modern society, both of women and men are an important part of society. Women are endowed with different identities by society. For example, women are identified as the roles of mothers, wives, and workers. Since they play the roles of multi-identities, they must also create great social values. However, in the current world where men still predominate, women may suffer more or less unfair treatment no matter from families or from corporations. And in different countries, the situation also varies. The following case is a good example of this.

     In the case of Women’s Work written by Zhang Yiqian, it can be seen that women’s identities are quite restricted in China. Chinese women are always expected to play mainly social roles as wives and mothers instead of being professional women in China. One of the protagonists in the article, Liu Yan, had to give up her career because of family responsibilities. After the practice of two-child policy in China, her husband strongly required her to give birth to the other child. Hence, the goal of further developing the career has become a bubble again for Liu. It shows that the two-child policy has pushed Chinese women to a tougher situation where giving birth to a second child is more important than other things including career life. From the other perspective, it shows that human rights which are referred in particular to women’s rights still need to be improving in China. Otherwise, the tragedy of the other protagonist Yang Bing may be avoided.  Despite having many times of failed pregnancy experiences, Yang Bing, and her husband were still eager to the another child regardless of high risks. Unfortunately, she died during the process of giving birth to the child. The tragedy sparked a heated discussion of second- child policy in China and women’s rights and interests. In the following part, I would analyze the article from the perspectives of values and identity, corporate governance and human rights.

     Since China is still under the strong influence of Confucian culture which identifies women as the role of wives and mothers. Their identity role as professional women is still taken as less important in society. Therefore, women’s values are always related to family responsibilities rather than career achievements. Even though nowadays there are more and more professional women and women take work more important than in the past, the traditional identity role of women still could not be overlooked. In many cases in China, may families not afford to hire babysitters to take care of children. Hence, many women have to give up their careers for a few years to take care of children. Liu is one of the examples. She did not go to work for the past seven years to take care of her son. No matter it is family members or friends or female themselves, they all expect women to be good housewives and mothers. Society usually demands women stand behind themselves so that they could devote themselves to working (Jeffrey and Yu, 2015). Liu’s husband sets up a good example for this. He earned enough money and wished Liu stayed at home to give birth to the other child and took care of the whole family, which leads to a conflict with Liu, who wished to return to work. Hence, it could be seen that the traditional concepts of the roles of women and men still conservative. For many men including Liu and Yang’s husbands, giving birth to babies and taking care of women are the bounden duty of women, which is the fuse to produce conflicts within families in China. What’s more, in China nowadays, unlike Liu, many women have to work as professional women and wives and mothers at the same time because of the economic pressure (Altonji and Pieret, 2001). In order to survive, they have to blur gender consciousness on purpose to undertake the same responsibilities as men, which exerts great pressure on them. On the one hand, taking care of families have already consumed a large percent of their energy. On the other hand, they have to try quite hard to complete what is require by organizations. In the competitive society, female employees are at the disadvantage because they could be the first one to get fired. In order to avoid the incidents of getting unemployment, professional women have to work much harder than male employees so that they have to fulfil and perfect themselves continuously. In this way, it may influence their devotion to families, which may lead to the dissatisfaction of their families. It could be seen that women are in the place of difficult times of converting family identities and social identities in China now, which exerts great pressure on women. Once women could not undertake the successful role of good wife and mothers because they spent too much energy in career, family conflicts would appear. In the article, it could be detected that the second-child policy also aggravated conflicts during the process of converting the identity of social roles and family roles for women. To resolve the conflicts, it may take a long time because the traditional thinking of women’s identity roles as mothers and wives has ingrained in people’s minds. Only if everyone in the Chinese society respect women and listen to what they really want can women take less pressure during the process of converting social identity roles.

       From the perspective of human rights, the article shows that Chinese women suffer lots of social and corporate discriminations. According to UN Global Compact, the principle of Labor regulates that discrimination should be eliminated in respect of employment and occupations. Chinese women suffer both from employment discrimination and occupation discriminations. Since Chinese women suffered the pressure of giving birth to children and taking care of families as the article stated above, many organizations in China would rather hire male employees instead of female employees. Many organizations in China worry that after giving birth to babies, women do not have enough time to undertake the role of developing a career. Hence, they many give stricter rules on women. For example, many corporations in China regulate that women could only give birth to children after certain years, which shows the obvious prejudices on women. For many corporations, they want to escape the responsibility of giving the rights that female employees deserve such as long-time maternity leaves. They would consider more of their corporations’ economic self-interests. Therefore, in many cases, they would just hire male employees. The protagonist in the case -- Li Qing was turned down because the companies worried that if she were going to have the other child, it would affect their corporation’s work process directly. Though it is direct work discrimination which may arouse the anger in western countries, the phenomenon seems quite common in China because Li did not take any actions to fight against with the prejudices. What’s more, from the article, it also shows that women and men do not get equal pay even though they play the same role in the same positions, which is considered as pay discrimination in work. Professionally, women are regarded as vulnerable gender group in China, whose abilities are always doubted compare to that of men. Hence, corporations would usually pay more to male employees than female employees. The unfair treatment shows obvious discrimination on women, leading to a vicious circle that women think that they are incapable and are unwilling to work hard, and more discriminations occur. Besides, according to Liu whose husband strongly require her to give birth to a second child and oppose her back to develop her career again, it shows that discrimination also occurs in marriage life. Liu’s husband thought that he could earn enough money to support the whole family so that Liu should not go back to work but just gave birth to children.  In other words, to Liu’s husband, marriage is just one part of his life. But to Liu, he thought that marriage and children should be the only part of her life. This is the double standard for women and men, which is also quite unfair. Even though it is advocated in China for many years that women and men share the equal rights, the practices of discrimination for women still prevails. According to Livesay in the article, the most efficient thing is to strengthen laws to ensure and protect the rights of women. What’s more, corporations should be educated to give enough protection for female employees instead of escaping the responsibilities. However, as far as concerned, fully realizing the goal that women and men share the equal rights in China still has a long way to go because the tradition of women are subordinate to men is rooted in people’s minds for many years. Besides, women should be more independent, confident and self-reliant. Instead of listening and following all that the social rules say, women should sometimes stick to their own principles and learn to say no to discriminations. In this way, discrimination could gradually diminish.

     From the perspective of corporate governance, the article shows that Chinese corporations have comparably weak relations with the employees. Corporate governance not only indicates the relationship between firms and their capital providers but also indicates the relationship between corporations and their employees. As it is mentioned above, female discrimination in work would curb the important values that female contribute to.  Even though there are more and more females get involved in the management of corporations, they do not get fair treatment as they deserve. Females get much resistance from others such as companies and families during the process of getting a promotion. For example, in the article, Liu had to give up the good chance of developing career and getting a promotion because of family resistance. Besides, as it is mentioned above, companies would usually give male employees more power than female employees. Many organizations in Chin judge females in the stereotyped view which regards that women should be obedient rather than being decisive. When the stereotyped image of a female employee is not in accordance with what people think, the female employee may be detested by people. However, if she plays the tender and obedient role, she might not play any decisive role in making policies, which impedes the process of developing a career for female employees. Besides, even when the female employees become one of the members of the management team, she might still suffer pressure from all levels of society. Traditionally, it is regarded that women are less able than men in making decisions in China. In the same position, they have less power than men. In this way, they could not play as important role as men in the same position. On the other hand, people would think that it is because women lack ability so that they could not lead an important role. In this way, a vicious circle repeats again. Hence, it could be seen that discrimination for a female in employment not only crack down female employees’ activeness but also decrease their important role in management. On the other hand, it reflects that corporate governance in China is still comparably weak because a good corporate governance could ensure that both of female and male employees could get an equal chance to make contributions to corporations.

      In conclusion, women are still identified as the role of mothers and wives in China and their social values are more related to families. Being professional women in China still suffer lots of difficulties including discrimination in employment. Discrimination for women in employments is reflected in many aspects, which may impede the development of career for women. On the other hand, it reflects that corporate governance is comparably weak in China. Currently, the most efficient are to legislate to protect women’s rights. But it is a long journey to realize the equal rights between women and men fully.