“Her era” drives the vigorous development of “her economy”. With the increasing contribution of professional women to economic and social development, the group of professional women has received more and more attention from all walks of life.
In 2020, the variety show “Sister Riding the Wind and Waves” became a big hit, which aroused people’s attention and discussion on the development of women’s workplace. In recent years, the female labor participation rate in China has steadily increased to 63.35%, which is higher than the average level of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (57%) and Asia-Pacific countries (62%). This data, I believe many people feel the same. Medical scientist Tu Youyou, “Lao Ganma” Tao Huabi, writer Zhang Haidi, women’s volleyball coach Lang Ping, the first female astronaut Liu Yang, “Beidou Goddess” Xu Ying… Countless outstanding Chinese women have also used their own actions to prove that “women can top half of the sky”.
Compared with women in other parts of the world, Chinese women contribute the most to the gross domestic product (GDP), reaching 41%, which is the highest in the world. “Her era” drives the vigorous development of “her economy”. With the increasing contribution of professional women to economic and social development, the group of professional women has received more and more attention from all walks of life.
Chinese women who hold up half the sky
The Chinese people are very hardworking, and Chinese women are especially hardworking. In the course of our country’s development, women, who account for half of the population, have always been an irreplaceable force. They have made contributions in all walks of life and fields, showing a spirit of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-reliance. At the beginning of last year, when the new crown pneumonia epidemic raged in Hubei, female medical staff became the new force to support Hubei. According to data from the Medical Administration and Hospital Administration of the National Health Commission, as of March 8, 2020, 346 medical teams have been dispatched across the country. Among the 42,600 medical workers rushing to Hubei, 28,000 are female medical workers, accounting for three of them. Two of them. Among them, the proportion of female nurses is as high as 90%. Women do not give up beards, they have played a huge role in the treatment of patients.
The labor force participation rate of Chinese women and the proportion of professional and technical personnel have always been among the highest in the world. The World Economic Forum released the “Global Gender Disparity Report 2020”. The female labor force participation rate in China is 63.35%, ranking first in the world. How powerful is this data? In France, even the male labor force rate is only 59.67%, which means that Chinese women have beaten men from other countries in their hard work. Compared with women from other countries, Chinese women can also be arrogant.
Gap between men and women in the workplace narrows
There is “lady first” in the etiquette of the carriage, but not in the workplace. The only way is to struggle. In order to realize their dreams, women sometimes have to work harder than men. Especially working mothers, strive to find a balance between career and family.
Although not easy, women in the workplace still show a tough side. In the workplace, changes in Chinese women’s salary can directly show changes in their status. The “2020 China Workplace Gender Salary Gap Report” released by BOSS directly shows that in 2019, the average salary of urban employed women in China was 6,995 yuan, an increase of 7.7% year-on-year, and the average salary was 81.6% of men’s. The salary advantage of men fell from 27.7% in 2018 to 22.5%. This is also the first time the wage gap between women and men in China has narrowed in three years.
From a geographical point of view, Shenzhen, a young and energetic city, has gathered a large number of outstanding women: high IQ, high education, and able to endure hardships. The data shows that among the urban men’s and women’s salary differences, Shenzhen has the smallest average salary difference.
For a long time, men have been able to allocate more and better educational resources than women, but this phenomenon is changing, and the gap between women and men in access to educational resources is shrinking. In recent years, the improvement of women’s educational level is one of the reasons for the gradual reduction of the pay gap. Zhaopin Recruitment and Babytree released the “Survey Report on the Status Quo of Chinese Women’s Workplace in 2020”, showing that in terms of the educational distribution of respondents, women with a bachelor’s degree or above accounted for more than men. In general, women in the workplace generally present the characteristics of “high knowledge”.
The proportion of women in senior management and high-paying technical positions has risen
Position is the biggest factor leading to the differentiation of men’s and women’s pay. In recent years, as women’s work abilities and willingness to develop their careers have continued to increase, more and more women have begun to enter the management. According to data from the BOSS Direct Employment Research Institute, in 2019, the proportion of women in director-level positions in my country reached 25.4%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 2018. Among them, the proportion of women among human resources directors reached 51.8%, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from 2018. The proportion of women in public relations directors, administrative directors, and legal directors also increased by 0.6 to 1.0 percentage points compared with 2018. It is worth mentioning that in 2019, the participation of female executives in senior executive positions that have a significant impact on the company’s core business, such as technology, products, and sales, has also increased by 0.24%, 0.07%, and 0.44%, respectively.
With the increasing number of women choosing STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) majors, more and more women are pouring into high-paying technical positions. The BOSS Direct Employment Research Institute listed the percentage of women in the 15 technical positions with the highest average salary in 2019. Although the proportion of women in the 15 high-paying technical positions is still generally less than 30%, the proportion of women in 60% of the positions has increased. Among them, the proportion of women serving as voice recognition and image recognition engineers increased by 5.8% and 3.6% respectively compared with the previous year. Compared with the increase in the proportion of women in this position in 2018, the rate of increase is closer to 20%.
The increase in the proportion of women in senior management and high-paying technical positions has increased the overall salary levels of high-income women. At the same time, the proportion of women in customer service, proofreader, entry clerk, translator and other positions with high standardization, repetitive work, and easy to be replaced by digitization is gradually increasing. In 2019, the average proportion of women in these types of positions reached 87.5%, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from 2018. Although the penetration of women in high-paying and senior management positions is gradually increasing, the internal competitiveness differences are further diverging.
Professional barriers that still exist
The status of women in the workplace has been significantly improved compared to the past, but they are also facing many difficulties and development bottlenecks.
Although the concept of “equal pay for equal work” has been put forward for many years and has been written into labor laws, it is still common for men to have higher average salaries than women in both developed and developing countries.
Female leadership is generally recognized, but female leaders are still rare. According to the “2020 China Women’s Workplace Status Survey Report”, 67.98% of the respondents believe that women can be competent for the company’s top management, and women choose this option more. Among the options that think that women are incapable of being at the top of the company, men have a higher proportion. Among managers at different levels, the proportion of women is generally lower than that of men, especially in the position of senior management. 9% of men are in senior management positions, and only 5% of women are in senior management positions.
The “2021 Talent Capital Trend Report” issued by BOSS directly shows that in terms of job-hopping, both men and women show a trend of first increasing and then decreasing the probability of job-hopping, reaching a peak between 22-24 years old, but the peak of female job-hopping comes earlier than men. , And before the age of 24, the probability of job-hopping is higher than that of men. Although everyone is generally anxious about age, in contrast, men’s reasons for quitting jobs are more focused on income level, while women are more concerned about room for growth. One of the deeper reasons behind the data is that women have limited space for advancement in the workplace and have to seize opportunities as much as possible.
Unfair treatment in the workplace
The workplace is full of challenges, and people in the workplace have more or less encountered unfair treatment. The survey shows that 58.25% of women have encountered “being asked about their marital and reproductive status during the job application process”, 27% of women have encountered “the employer restricts the gender of the position when applying for a job”, and 8.02% of women have experienced “workplace sexual harassment” 6.39% of women have experienced “post-transfer or salary cuts during marriage and childbirth”, and there are only a handful of men who have encountered these injustices. In summary, the unfair treatment of women in the workplace has nothing to do with their ability to work, but only due to their physiological gender attributes.
If women in the stage of marriage and childbirth have encountered more exclusion from the workplace, then working mothers are facing the problem of energy distribution. The sudden attack of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020 has made many professionals experience telecommuting. Intuitively, working mothers have more time to spend with their children, but the survey results show that 40.63% of working mothers think that they are busier than usual, 46.05% of working mothers think that work efficiency is improved, and 37.92% of working mothers think that they are remote. Office is more convenient to take care of the family.
The dilemmas faced by professional women are hard to avoid, especially “30+ women”, who are often in the conflicts between the family marriage and the career promotion period. The difficulties arise because of the relative laws and policies. Lagging and implementation omissions; on the other hand, it is society’s stereotyped stereotypes towards women. Under the influence of these stereotypes, women are more required to devote their energy to caring for the family and affect their performance in the workplace; and some employers will also make decisions that are gender-biased or even discriminate against women due to human cost concerns. . Breaking down the barriers of women’s occupation is a long way to go.
