Women’s status in Hong Kong

Many signs of progress,but much remains done

Recent reports show that women are becoming the target of many conventionally “male” consumer product advertisements for goods such as automobiles and electronic products. Although Hong Kong women’s economic independence and their influence on the economy shed light on women’s rising status, there is still much that remains to be done.

It is found that in spite of the gloomy economy, Hong Kong women are spending a considerable amount of income on beauty products and services, cellular phones, clothes and accessories, jewellery and traveling. Women turn out to be a growth point of the local retail market in the current economic downturn. This can be considered an index of the increasing level of women’s income, as well as their influence on the economy.

It is a popular impression that women’s status in Hong Kong is relatively high in Asia. Apart from economic independence, another more commonly used piece of evidence to prove this is equal education opportunities.

In the 1970s, the implementation of the current 9-year compulsory education policy was in fact especially beneficial to women. This is because before that time a traditional Hong Kong family tended to make the educational investment in sons rather than daughters.

Today, these women are mostly among their 40s. Like the previous generation, they marry and have children, but they work as doctors, lawyers, architects and politicians.

And when it comes to today’s higher education in Hong Kong, women even share a larger proportion of the educational recourses which will qualify them as professionals in a more competitive society.

However women’s status in society should be assessed not only by the two signs mentioned above, but also by aspects such as labor force participation, wage differentials, development of women’s groups, as well as gender roles and attitudes.

Even though much has taken place to improve women’s status during the last few decades, gender inequalities and discrimination can still be found in Hong Kong.

For example, the median monthly income of women is 29 percent lower than that of men, according to the government’s 2001 Population Census Thematic Report – Women and Men. Nearly half of women in Hong Kong have experienced some form of harassment at work, according to a recent survey.

Returning to women’s influence on the economy mentioned at the beginning, it can be discovered without any difficulty that slimming and beauty products or services are still the hottest consumer products for women, which always remain controversial. Is it a need that women have by themselves, or is it created by society? Is it helping women to gain a better self-image, or is it a morbid trend which results from the influence of a male-dominant society?

Sha Jiayi
Assistant Managing Editor