Could businesswomen be the game changers for gender equality in China?
- Author Joy Chen tells session at China Conference that women are ‘at the centre of an epic clash’ in a changing society
- But panel member Scarlett Li says encouraging more women to become entrepreneurs could be one way to improve gender parity
Women entrepreneurs could be the game changers when it comes to improving gender equality in the workplace and society, panellists told the South China Morning Post’s annual China Conference on Thursday.
Speaking at a session on women’s issues, author Joy Chen, who wrote the bestseller Do Not Marry Before Age 30, said they faced “enormous pressure” in a changing society.
“I see Chinese women at the centre of an epic clash between old and new China, because it is really only in this generation Chinese women have become among the best educated talent in the world,” said Chen, who is also the former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and has worked as a CEO headhunter for Fortune 500 companies.
“Yet they still feel enormous pressure pulling them back to traditional roles, it’s the pressure to get married, to have kids … there are pressures from all sides still pulling women to go back to at least halfway – maybe not as full-time wives or mothers, but to inch back in their careers.”
Chen’s address on the challenges faced by this generation of Chinese women was followed by a panel discussion on their crucial role in China’s future.
