Women and Development, 1996-1998, Hong Kong

Mary Ann King
(In association with the Hong Kong Women Coalition on Equal Opportunities)

Recently, when talking to friends from overseas about the situation of Hong Kong's women, everyone has the impression that, comparatively speaking, the situation of women in Hong Kong is "very good": they have equal status as men; some women have assumed high posts in government; and many other women are in managerial positions in private companies. Moreover, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has been extended to Hong Kong - something that not even the U.S. government has done. In addition, within the last three years, three anti-discrimination ordinances have been passed, and an Equal Opportunities Commission has been established. What more could one ask for?

The truth is that the majority of Hong Kong's women do not enjoy the same equal status as men, for many work in low paying and insecure employment and lack opportunities to develop further. We have to look beyond the camouflage to expose the real issues that Hong Kong's women are facing.

Feminization of Poverty

The economic crisis for women did not start in October 1997; rather, it started a few years before with globalization and economic restructuring when Hong Kong moved from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy. Middle-aged women workers (from mid-30s to late 40s), who possessed only skills that they had learned from working in factories, found it harder and harder to find work. The service sector is notorious for its discrimination based on age and academic qualifications. Thus, many of the displaced women workers today can only find work in the lowest paid jobs as waitresses in fast-food chains or as cleaners, messengers, cashiers in supermarkets, etc. Moreover, among those that have found employment, many work on a part-time or short-term contract basis. In addition, according to a recent survey conducted by a local non-governmental organization (NGO), wages, in real terms, have decreased by 13 percent. Among the 410,000 workers whose monthly income is under the suggested basic rate (US$776), 310,000 were women - 75.6 percent of the poor working population. Moreover, there is still a significant number of women who are unemployed without any state assistance. Another alarming situation is that discrimination based on age is getting younger, for now women under 30 are also being barred from clerical work. Although the government recognizes that discrimination exists, it does not wish to deal with the situation as it is against the interests of Hong Kong's employers. In this context, it must be noted too that the labor ordinances in Hong Kong are very weak and do not offer any real protection to women workers.

In Hong Kong, insecure and low paying part-time and casual work have become the main trends of employment today. According to the Hong Kong Women Workers' Association (HKWWA), many housewives and women workers, who have been seeking work for a long period of time, will accept these types of positions because they will bring at least some money into the family.

Government statistics though indicate that women are not the worst group of the working population experiencing unemployment. This is because women workers tend to be pushed into the lowest level of employment with the least power to bargain and have no career ladder. The government and society probably think that part-time and casual work suits women because they were never meant to have a "career" or "economic power." 

Lastly, the Hong Kong government is reluctant to deal with the employment situation and economic hardships encountered by women. Of the many "proposals" that the government has put forward, few benefit women; for instead of targeting money for job creation, the government has poured money into "retraining" that is not linked to jobs and again only trains women for low paying employment, such as office assistants, home helpers, etc.

New Migrants

In the past decade, more women and their children from mainland China have joined their husbands in Hong Kong. Consequently, out of the 50,000 immigrants who arrive in Hong Kong every year from mainland China, more than 65 percent are women above the age of 20. The following statistics offer a demographic profile of these women:

60 percent have only a primary school education or lower;
49 percent are from rural villages;
71 percent are between the ages of 36 and 45 with the average age being 40;
18 percent are 20 years younger than their husbands;
40 percent have no jobs;
29 percent receive welfare;
11 percent are single parents.

The Hong Kong government has initiated some support services to help new immigrants to settle into their new homes. However, what is being provided is scarcely enough to fulfil the above aim, and even less is being done to help local Hong Kong people to accept these new members of society.

New immigrant women had high hopes about their new life in Hong Kong. However, reality has shattered their dreams. Many of these women cannot speak the local Cantonese dialect, and they are in a new environment with few friends or family members for support. In addition, their husbands can manipulate them easily, and domestic violence is a common problem. Last year, for instance, case statistics from Harmony  House, a shelter for women who have suffered from domestic violence, showed 27.2 percent of their residents had been in Hong Kong for three years or less. Many new immigrant women, in order to improve their economic situation, are willing to accept the most unpleasant and lowest paid jobs. When the economy is not doing well, newcomers are made the scapegoats based on an attitude that is similar to racial discrimination. They are being blamed for pulling down wages levels and taking jobs away from the indigenous working population even though this is not true. The real issue is that a minimum wage has to be imposed to stop employers from benefiting from the current economic crisis.

Beyond the Economic Crisis

The economic crisis is not affecting just the working population and the business sector. When we have relative political stability and the economy booms, our society would not be so mean as to turn their attacks on the disadvantaged groups, such as single parents, battered wives, women with different sexual orientations, etc. Now when times get tough that generosity shrinks. The government, media and even some activists have stated that unemployed workers, including women and single parents, lose their will to work once they are on welfare.  Some have suggested that welfare recipients should "earn" their welfare by doing community work.

Why do people say that welfare makes people "lazy"? Is it because welfare recipients with family responsibilities need jobs that pay reasonable wages so that they can provide their families with nutritious meals, adequate clothing and a comfortable home? Is it too much to ask for, given what we have said already about the current employment situation for women? Is it wrong for people to demand a respectable and decent life? For single mothers whose ex-husbands are refusing to pay maintenance, what alternatives are there except welfare? Welfare recipients have to bear all of the discrimination, humiliation and negative labeling that is attached to welfare.

The Hong Kong government is considering welfare reform, targeting unemployed families. One proposal is that single mothers on welfare should get a job but without offering any suggestion to increase child care facilities. Many of these single mothers are middle-aged who do not have much education and lack job skills. If they are forced to work, their income is certain to be low. Although the last Legislative Council (Legco) decided to establish a Board of Maintenance to help single mothers pursue unpaid alimony payments, it seems to be a promise that remains to be fulfilled.

Another obstacle that single mothers face is how to find adequate and affordable housing. Not only is housing very expensive in Hong Kong, single parents often face discrimination and sexual harassment by their male neighbors or landlords.

Three years ago women who have suffered domestic violence fought successfully for a public rehousing policy that grants them conditional tenancy after their divorce. However, many divorcees, when trying to exercise their right under this policy, were met with bureaucracy that, in effect, barred them from being rehoused. Very often these women are at the mercy of their social workers whose recommendation weighs heavily on the success of their applications. One woman said, "We have to have cancer or sleep on the street before we can get any assistance."

Although homosexuality is no longer illegal, life for women, as well as men, with a different sexual orientation is still very hard. Women are often laid off if their sexuality is discovered. In some extreme cases, young women commit suicide because they cannot face the discrimination.

In 1994, a private member's bill was introduced to prohibit several types of discrimination in Hong Kong, including discrimination based on sexual orientation. The fight for enactment of such legislation continued into 1997, but still we lost. The government and Legco maintained that, until this issue could be accepted by society, public education, rather than legislation, was the proper way to deal with discrimination based on sexual orientation. It will be extremely difficult to get this issue raised and passed in the new legislature because most members are either conservative or are from the business sector. The new voting structure also ensures that any bill the government does not want to be enacted will not become law.

Window Display

The Equal Opportunities Commission was created in 1996 to enforce all of the anti-discrimination ordinances in Hong Kong, i.e., the Sex Discrimination Ordinance and Disability Discrimination Ordinance passed in July 1995 and the
Family Responsibilities Discrimination Ordinance enacted in June 1997. The main provisions in all of these pieces of legislation are concerned with discrimination in the workplace.

From the outset, the commission has emphasized that they are a commission for both men and women, a stance which has come through in all of their positions, public speeches, activities and policies. 
Women's groups, however, have insisted that one cannot just talk about equal opportunities for both sexes in abstract terms: there are many forms of discrimination now that only women are experiencing. 
Consequently, the commission should seek ways to first address these inequalities.

In addition to these weaknesses, a former commissioner complained that commissioners are made up of predominantly employers and professionals; the grassroots' points of view are not represented. Moreover, the commissioners have very little knowledge of the discrimination that women face. With this background, one can understand why the commission has emphasized forming partnerships with companies and why so much of their resources are concentrated on educating employers on how to comply with the law but very little of their funds are devoted to what rights employees have under the law.

Although CEDAW has been extended to Hong Kong for two years now, little has been done by the government to ensure that local policies and legislation reflect the true spirit of the convention. CEDAW also contains two major exemptions for religious groups and the "small house policy" for the New Territories. Both areas discriminate against women institutionally, in particular the small house policy in which only males have the right to own land by birth.

Politically, although we had a record high voting rate in the Legco election in May 1998, this may have been a way for the people to show that they are disappointed rather than supportive of the present structure. Whatever the government may have said, this election was not a fair one.

The use of functional constituencies and the 800-member Election Committee to "elect" a majority of the Legco members allows a small group of people to have a second or even a third vote. These two forms of election discriminate against women since the functional constituencies do not reflect the views of housewives and very few women are represented in high-level management positions or are professionals. We are pushing for an end to this electoral system. We demand a system of one person, one vote so that all Hong Kong people can enjoy equal voting rights and that the voice of minority groups can be properly represented in the decision making process.

Because of time constraints, I will just mention that there are now new groups set up to work on the issues of sexual violence and sex workers. Although nothing has changed in these two areas, at least they are beginning to raise their voice. Another group of women that has been neglected are single women. Statistic show that an increasing number of women are remaining single, either by choice or as a result of divorce, but yet they are the least catered for by society.