China would ban employers from stating gender preferences in job ads or asking female applicants about their marital and pregnancy status under a proposed overhaul of an almost three-decade-old women’s rights law.
The nation’s top legislative body began reviewing a draft amendment to the Women’s Rights and Interests Protection Law on Monday, as part of a five-day meeting that wraps up Friday. The legislation was in its first reading before the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and could pass as soon as next year.
The revised draft would provide explicit descriptions and provide a more precise legal landscape on issues such as sexual harassment.
Employers would be ordered to set up mechanisms to prevent, investigate and respond to such complaints, although the legal ramifications for failing to do so were unclear.
Female job applicants have detailed on Chinese social media and in court a wide spectrum of workplace discrimination, including being forced to sign contracts pledging not to get pregnant as a condition of their hiring, according to a Human Rights Watch published in June. One-fifth of 2019 civil service job postings in China specified a preference for male applicants, the report found.
