2018年CRI Employers urged to be flexible towards female workers

 

A forum¹ that focuses on how to promote leadership for women was recently being held in Beijing, ahead of International Women's Day.

Some accomplished² female professionals at the event have said that employers should adopt flexible workplace policies.

The policies include a certain level of flexibility³ in tracking employees' daily attendance.

CRI's Shen Ting has more.

Julie Broussard is the Country Program Manager of UN Women China, a co-sponsor of the event, titled "She Leads, She Empowers."

Broussard says women in the workplace are essential, especially after they gave birth. She talks about the need for the promotion⁴ of female leadership.

"I think there's a lot of value in women contributing in the workplace and having participated in work life in a way that gets them a sense of fulfillment. I think obviously whatever they feel, they need to become re-familiar with the field. They need to see what are the latest trends and developments in that field. I would advise that women get help when revising their resume and maybe get a little bit of practice on doing job interviews."

Working women are confronted with big hurdles⁵ on the corporate⁶ scene.

A survey, seeking opinions from over 500 people, shows around 40 percent of people think that kids and family are usually the main factors that slow the pace of women on their career paths.

The survey was conducted on Wechat by another sponsor of the event, China Plus, with China Radio International.

Hung Huang is a famous author, blogger, media figure and publisher in China. She was invited to the forum.

In her opinion, the corporate world doesn't have a structure favorable for women to have children.

"The white-collar job system was traditionally only designed for men, rather than women. I feel that we need to urge the management to give female workers more flexibility in their daily attendance record. For instance, an employee of my studio has recently got pregnant. My studio is not rigid⁷ in tracking employees' attendance and they do not necessarily work in the office everyday. We've discovered she's now able to complete all her tasks on time following her pregnancy⁸. However before she got pregnant, she was often complained about for causing delays. So I believe if the workplace gives female employees such flexibility, they would be encouraged to work better."

Virginia Tan is the co-founder and President of Lean In China.

She is optimistic that employers will choose to become more flexible. Her optimism is based on her findings that there are two trends which she thinks help women on their career path. One is increasing digitalization. She explains.

"Because I think these two trends are actually changing the way the future workforce⁹ is going to operate and the way that even large companies actually have to move towards. You know, another finding from the White Paper is about the impact of women in the workplace in this digital age; where it talks about how things like remote working are enabled by digital tools which can actually help women balance ( their work and life demands) — not only does this apply to women alone but also to men who can also balance their demands in and outside of their workplaces. So you can manage teams even when you are not actually in the office."

Roughly 70 percent of Chinese women have joined the workforce.

According to a research by the U.S. Bureau of Labor¹⁰ Statistics in 2017, China's total labor force and participation¹¹ rate for women both rank first across the globe. China's labor force participation rate has been sitting at around 76 percent, comparing to 65 percent in the U.S. and 58 percent in Japan. But the figure is actually going down.

According to Virginia Tan, by 2025, seventy-five percent of China's workforce will be millennials. Virginia Tan believes this is the second trend that will perhaps change the rules of work.

"The second thing is the rise of millennials. You know, post-90s, those born after 1990 and 1995; they are not going to accept the same rules that were made for work. They are already exerting that pressure. They are demanding things like flexibility. A lot of them, even if you pay them money, actually they don't want to be stuck in the office all day long. They want to be contingent¹², they want to be free and they want to be freelancers¹³. They want to have their own companies. Actually I think this helps change the rules of work, and I think this helps actually women."

All other issues that have been discussed at the forum include major challenges for women at work, suggestions to post-90s women and how to deal with the second kid issue.

For CRI, I'm Shen Ting.

1 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

2 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

3 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

4 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

5 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

6 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

7 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

8 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

9 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

12 contingent   

adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队

参考例句：

• The contingent marched in the direction of the Western Hills.队伍朝西山的方向前进。
• Whether or not we arrive on time is contingent on the weather.我们是否按时到达要视天气情况而定。

13 freelancers   

n.自由作家，自由记者( freelancer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A lot of proof-reading is put out to freelancers. 校对工作有很多是请外人做的。 来自辞典例句
• Its benefits plan for freelancers is highly competitive in the industry. 在本行业内它的福利方案是很有竞争力的。 来自互联网