‘The contributor to the issue of gender inequality in the workplace and at home in the context of the coronavirus in China’

At the beginning of this year, the outbreak of the pandemic has disrupted individuals’ common life and the economic development of society. According to BBC which cites the report by UN Women, the pandemic may set the progress of gender equality made by the organization for the past 25 years back.

‘Everything we have spent 25 years working on may be lost within this year’

said by UN Women’s Deputy Director, Anita Bhatia. Also, she added that covid-19 had caused women bear an increasing family-nursing burden, which resulted in worse gender equality issue.

In Chinese society, the traditional concept of ‘gender stereotype’ has always existed. ‘Strong male and weak female’, ‘taking care of one’s husband and children’, ‘men working outside and women working at home’ have always been attached to the labels of Chinese females.women’s general social status is also relatively low in the workplaces and most of them are engaged in service industries that has low income.

Due to impacts caused by the outbreak of the pandemic , China have begun to adopt a lockdown system since February 2020.A lot of industries dominated by females such as sales, entertainment, hospitality, education, etc. have been badly hit or even closed down.

As a result, those industries have no option but to cut down expenses by laying off employees. Consequently, an increasing number of women have lost their jobs and source of incomes. Moreover, given off the health concern, schools have been shut down as well which leads to a heavier burden for women to take care of their children at home.

This situation contributes to the failure of women who have managed to secure their jobs in the workplace to balance between work and life, also they need to pay more attention and spend more time to take care of family members. As a consequence, females return to the family role of housewives has become a common phenomenon in China.

‘Having difficulties in balancing family and work has been a common problem faced by working mom.’

When I applied for an internship position in a magazine company, the editor-in-chief Linda said,”we have a large number of female employees resigned during the coronavirus period since those married female editors need to look after children and deal with domestic affairs during the day, they only have little time to spare in the evening, which has exhausted them already and therefore，they don’t have more energy to focus on work or writing articles .”

Linda continues, “however, this is a different case for men. The male editors seem to become more efficient in working at home, and they have achieved a faster speedy of delivery. Our male workers told me that they just needed to stay at home and focus on editing and they no longer have to think about what to eat every day, because their wives will make meals for them.

It seems that working at home is much convenient for males, that not only can they save time in commuting, but also they have a comfortable working environment which allows them to focus on their work without much distraction.” 

Then, I interviewed two Chinese women of different ages in different positions to discuss the impact of the coronavirus on their work and personal lives.

Chris Jiang, 32, a clothes shop owner

“Mom, come and play with me ”

“Mom, when will the biscuits be ready?”

When I just stepped into Chris’ house, I heard the noise of a child. And the back figure who is constantly busy in the kitchen is my interviewee—Chris, a 32-years-old woman who is a clothing shop owner.

Before she could take off her apron, she hurried out of the kitchen, enthusiastically took out the freshly made biscuits and asked me to sit down. “As you can see, my child is still very young and naughty. Because the kindergarten is closed, he can only stay at home.”

Then she looked at her child who was playing with toys next to her, continued, “My child used to go to kindergarten during the daytime, but now our family of three stay at home every day, so not only do I need to take care of my child, but also I have to do the housework, which leaves me no private time to spare.”

When I asked why her husband not help with the housework, she said, “My husband is a game designer, and now I have no income, so our entire family depends on him. Plus, his work is relatively busy, so all the burden comes to me alone.”

The inequality of employment opportunities between Chinese men and women mainly refers to the fact that in job hunting, women are treated unequally and biased which lead to less opportunity for them to pursue professional development and career achievement as their male counterpart do.

Based on the news report, the impact brought by coronavirus on the issue of female unemployment is called

‘she-cession’

Aloe Wu, 24, a College students who just graduated

My interview with Aloe was held in the small apartment which she rents. When I stepped into the room that is only tens of square meters, I saw a lot of cosmetics and clothes on her floor.

” I was just finishing selling goods through the channel of live video streaming, so I  haven’t had time to clean up my room.” Aloe looked at me awkwardly, I smiled and said it’s okay, then we moved to a small corner and sat down.

“I graduated from the Business School of the University of Nottingham this year, and then I started looking for a job after returning to China. However, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, many companies have stricter recruitment policies, especially for unmarried women.

They think unmarried women have too many unstable factors such as future marriage and pregnancy. Coupled with the outbreak of the coronavirus which has increased the economic pressure on the company, the least they want is more uncertainties; therefore, they show less preference for female candidates. As a result, I have not heard back from many companies that I have applied for, nor got any positive response.” 

Aloe said helplessly while tidying up her clothes, “But in order to continue to make money to support my living expenses, I recently started working in the industry of online e-commerce.

Given that everyone has been self-quarantined at home and the Internet has become a place for people to socialize and place orders, I become a network anchor and sell goods through social media and online platforms such as TikTok. She has already made some profits through her business. Aloe smiled and said happily.

“Although selling and trading is not my specialty, I want to actively learn new vocational skills firstly. At the same time, I am still preparing myself for a profession in the online trading business and once the situation gets better, I would apply for jobs in the industry and accumulate relevant working experience”. From her smile, I can feel her ambition and determination in her future professional development.

Through interviews with Chris and Aloe, I have learnt that the impact of the coronavirus on women’s professional development is very obvious, especially for married females in China. There has always been a feudal concept of sexism in Chinese society, that women are expected to take care of the family while men are supposed to work outside and provide financial support for the family.

What is more, society generally believes that women and men have a great physical difference, that is, women are not as strong as men are and they are not as reliable as male workers in the workplace. Although with the implementation of feminist protection treaties, an increasing number of women have devoted themselves in the workplace, but gender inequality is still a social issue which has not be resolved completely.

For example, some construction industries and manufacturing industries in China are still dominated by men. For full-time mothers, if their partners’ income is stable after the epidemic, the lives of mothers will not be affected much. However, for single women in the workplace, they will inevitably fall into anxiety if their income is interrupted.

In a word, gender equality will still be a topic for the coming decades and will need attention from the public in the globe until fairness between men and women has been achieved in the workplace and at home.

‘I think women can do a lot of things and shouldn’t be defined by their identity. This is not to say that Chinese women have to be gentle and take care of their husbands and children at home. Just like me, I can also do well in a male-dominated ring and be recognized by the public. ‘

said by weili zhang , a Chinese female boxer