Equal opportunity? The role of legislation and public policies in women's employment in China

Reviews the positive role of the state in promoting women's employment since the founding of Communist China in 1949. Identifies patterns of gender inequality which exist throughout the process of employment such as recruitment and retirement. Against this backcloth, analyses major reasons for the occurrence of this gender discrimination, which range from inadequate social security for childbearing and ineffective legislative monitoring mechanisms to gender bias in the employment legislation itself. Concludes that recent radical economic and social reforms in China have disrupted the context within which a level of equal opportunity has been achieved in the past few decades and demands a new legal framework under which greater equality between men and women in employment can be achieved.