China is often held up as a model for women in Asia. Women made great strides in the early decades of Communist rule, and the government has taken pains to portray women as equal to men, starting with Chairman Mao’s declaration that women “hold up half the sky.”
More recently, as China has shifted to a market economy, admiring reports of “wonder women,” often promulgated by state media, suggest that Chinese women have made it in business.
Inside the top 300 companies in China, women make up fewer than one in 10 board members.
Share of women on corporate boards
Norway
35.5%
OBX
France
29.7
CAC 40
Britain
22.8
FTSE 100
Australia
19.2
S.&P./ASX 200
United States
19.2
S.&P. 500
Germany
18.5
DAX
European Union
17.8
610 listed companies
China
9.6
CSI 300
India
9.5
BSE 200
Japan
3.1
TOPIX Core 30
But the economic boom that has created opportunities for women has also fostered a resurgence of long-repressed traditional values. More and more men and women say a woman’s place is in the home, wealthy men take mistresses in a contemporary reprise of the concubine system, and pressure for women to marry young is intense. In the office, Socialist-era egalitarianism has been replaced by open sexism, in some cases reinforced by the law.
No comments:
Post a Comment