China Prepares Amendments To New Sexual Harassment Protection Law, Women Have The Right To Marry And Get Pregnant

Chinese woman illustration. (Unsplash/Lau Keith)

JAKARTA - China's lawmaking body on Monday began deliberations on a draft amendment to the law to give women more protection against gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace, state media reported, outlining the rules including a clearer definition of inappropriate behavior. proper.

The permanent committee of the Bamboo Curtain State parliament, the National People's Congress, is discussing the draft amendment to the 'Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests', state television network CCTV reported.

The move comes as China looks for ways to maintain its workforce while its population will shrink, and after activist calls for gender equality that accompanied the fledgling #MeToo movement.

China is ranked 107th among 153 countries in the World Economic Forum's annual ranking of global gender equality. Men dominate the upper echelons of politics and business. Women occupy about a quarter of parliamentary seats and there is only one woman in the 25-member Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

Under the new rules, employers will not be allowed to ask female job applicants if they intend to marry or become pregnant, or make them take a pregnancy test, CCTV said.

CCTV is part of the Chinese government's publicity department and is the official channel through which the party and government release information. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposed law.

It is not clear how quickly the law could be passed. Discussions are expected to continue until at least Friday and the draft is unlikely to be voted on before then.

Under the new rules, employers would be breaking the law if they restricted female staff from marrying or having children, or if they explicitly prioritized male candidates over female candidates.

In the clearest definition of sexual harassment in China, the draft amendment stipulates, it is against the law to subject women against their will to verbal expression with sexual connotations, inappropriate or unnecessary bodily behavior, sexually explicit images, or hints of benefits in exchange. for intercourse or sexual intercourse.

To note, China's #MeToo movement began in 2018 when a student in Beijing publicly accused his professor of sexual harassment. It spread to NGOs, the media and other industries but faced setbacks recently when a court in September ruled the plaintiffs in a high-profile sexual harassment case.