Obstacles in mind

Despite the progress shown in these figures, obstacles still exist when it comes to improving women’s social status, especially in their career development.

According to 2016 Women, Work and Happiness White Paper released by Lean in China, an online platform promoting gender equality and women’s career development, most women believed that the major challenges they face in their career development are: work-life balance (86.3 percent), career disruption due to child bearing (73.63 percent) and responsibility at home and supporting their husbands (70.42 percent). The white paper noted that 63.2 percent of married women took the main responsibility of child rearing.

“It’s easy to promote gender equality in real life through various measures such as policies and laws, but it is difficult to change the discrimination deep in people’s mind,” said Liu Li.

Liu, 40, had held a high-level position as a lecturer in a local university in Xiamen, a coastal city in southeast China’s Fujian Province, for 11 years. But just before the Chinese Lunar New Year, she resigned and found a job in a small company so that she could have more time to take care of her three-year-old son.

“I am well educated and can have a good job, thanks to the progress made in gender equality in the past years,” said Liu. “But I have the feeling that when I try to take care of my family, I cannot work well in my career, and vice versa.”