For China’s Women, More Opportunities, More Pitfalls
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/world/asia/26iht-china.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
BEIJING — The question that dashed Angel Feng’s job prospects always came last.
那个严重冲击冯小姐职业前景的问题总是出现在最后关头。
Fluent in Chinese, English, French and Japanese, the 26-year-old graduate of a business school in France interviewed between January and April with half a dozen companies in Beijing, hoping for her first job in the private sector, where salaries are highest.
26岁的冯小姐毕业于法国一所商业学校，能说流利的中、英、法和日语。今年一月至四月间她一直在北京的几所大公司面试，期望能在薪酬较高的私企中找到自己毕业后的第一份工作。
“The boss would ask several questions about my qualifications, then he’d say: ‘I see you just got married. When will you have a baby?’ It was always the last question. I’d say not for five years, at least, but they didn’t believe me,” Ms. Feng said.
冯小姐说：“老板都会问几个有关我资历的问题，然后他们会说：‘我看你刚刚结婚，打算什么时候生小孩儿？’最后一个问题一定是这个。我会说近五年内肯定不会，但是他们根本不信。”
Three decades after China embarked on dazzling economic reforms, much has changed for women. Unlike their mothers, whose working — and, often, private — lives were determined by the state, women today can largely choose their paths. Rural women are no longer tethered to communes; urban women no longer are assigned jobs for life or need permission from work units to marry, although all women must apply for permission to have a child.
中国改革开放三十多年后，女性的生活发生了很大变化。现代女性不像她们的母亲那一辈人，工作和私人生活常常由国家决定，她们很大程度上可以选择自己的发展途径。农村妇女不再被限制在公社；都市女性也不再被安排一辈子做某一份工作，结婚也不再需要得到单位的允许，尽管她们还是得获得准生证才能生孩子。(which is really funny)
Yet along with freedom has come risk, as socialist-era structures are dismantled and powerful cultural traditions that value men over women, long held in abeyance by official Communist support for women’s rights, return in force. Many employers are choosing not to hire women in an economy where there is an oversupply of labor and women are perceived as bringing additional expense in the form of maternity leave and childbirth costs. The law stipulates that employers must help cover those costs, and feminists are seeking a system of state-supported childbirth insurance to lessen discrimination.
有了自由固然是好事儿，随之而来的却是风险。随着社会主义时代的社会结构遭到重击，尽管国家对女性权力大加支持，重男轻女这个强有力的文化传统却卷土重来。在中国劳动力过剩的经济情势下，很多招聘单位不愿雇佣女性。他们认为由于产假和生育等原因，女性员工会带来额外的开销。法律规定，用人单位必须支付该类费用；而女权主义者正在寻求建立一个国家买单的生育保险体系以减轻雇佣关系中的性别歧视。
The result is that even highly qualified candidates like Ms. Feng can struggle to find a footing. Practical concerns about coping in a highly competitive world are feeding into a powerful identity crisis among China’s women.
结果是像冯小姐这样的高素质人才都很难找到立足之地。对成功应付竞争激烈社会的担忧正逐步渗透到中国女性严重的身份危机中。
“The main issue we face is confusion, about who we are and what we should be,” said Qin Liwen, a magazine columnist. “Should I be a ‘strong woman’ and make money and have a career, maybe grow rich, but risk not finding a husband or having a child? Or should I marry and be a stay-at-home housewife, support my husband and educate my child? Or, should I be a ‘fox’ — the kind of woman who marries a rich man, drives around in a BMW but has to put up with his concubines?”
杂志专栏作家秦丽雯（音）说：“我们目前面对的最大问题是关于我们到底是谁以及我们该做什么样的人的困惑。我是不是应该做个女强人，会赚钱、有自己的事业，说不定变成小富婆，但代价就是可能找不到老公或是生不了孩子？或者说，我是不是该结婚然后做全职太太，相夫教子？或者干脆去傍个大款，开着宝马车但是得接受老公在外面彩旗飘飘？”
Ms. Feng found a job at a company that promoted Chinese brands.
“It was a really bad place,” she said. Employees were fired immediately after promotional drives to slash costs. Working hours were long. A colleague who suffered a late miscarriage was ordered back to work within three days. Ms. Feng’s monthly salary was 5,000 renminbi, or about $745, without benefits.
In July, she quit — for the security of a “semi-state” organization run by the Ministry of Education.
冯小姐后来在一家中国品牌推广公司找到了工作。但是她说那个地方非常糟糕。推广活动一结束，公司就会为削减开销而裁员；工作时间过长；一个不幸流产的同事被要求三天内回来上班。冯小姐月薪5000，没有任何福利。她七月份辞职了，找到了一份由教育部运营的半国有机构内的稳定工作。
The pay is lower, about $625 a month, but lunch in the ministry canteen is free, and she gets benefits that hark back to socialist days, including a housing allowance. Hours are fixed, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days a week. Most important, her employer, the China Education Association for International Exchange, does not object to employees’ having babies and provides at least 90 days’ maternity leave at full pay.
这份工作薪水更低，每月4000多一点，但是提供免费午餐还有其它福利，包括住房补贴，算是又回到社会主义大时代了。这份工作工作时间固定，每周五天，每天上午8:30上班、下午5:00下班。最重要的是，她目前供职的中国教育国际交流协会没有命令反对生育，而且提供至少三个月的带薪产假。
The job may be “a bit boring,” but for now, she, like others, has made her choice.
“The state sector is quite popular with women because their rights are better protected there,” said Feng Yuan, head of the Center for Women’s Studies at Shantou University.
冯小姐说这份工作虽然‘有点单调’，但是跟其他人一样，她已经做出了选择。汕头大学妇女研究中心负责人冯媛说：“国有企业很受女性欢迎，因为她们的权益得在那里得到更好的保护。”
Guo Jianmei, director of the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center, insists that, over all, women today are in a better position than they were three decades ago.
“They know so much more about their rights,” she said. “They are better educated. For those with a competitive spirit, there’s a world of opportunity here now, whether they are businesswomen, scientists, farmers or even political leaders. There really have been huge changes.”
众泽妇女法律咨询服务中心主任郭建梅认为，总体来说，当代女性的处境要比30年前好得多。她说：“她们更了解自己的权益，受到更好的教育。不管是商人、科学家、农民抑或是政治领袖，对于那些有竞争意识的女性来说，这个世界充满了机会。这方面的确有很大的变化。”
Women’s rights are well protected, at least on paper. In 2005, the government amended the landmark 1992 Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests, known as the Women’s Constitution, to make gender equality an explicit state policy. It also outlawed, for the first time, sexual harassment.
女性权益受到了良好保护，至少在书面上是这样。2005年，政府修定1992年颁布的具有里程碑意义的《妇女权益保障法》，至此性别平等明确成为基本国策，并首次将性骚扰纳入违法行为之列。
Yet gender discrimination is widespread. Only a few women dare to sue employers for unfair hiring practices, dismissal on grounds of pregnancy or maternity leave, or sexual harassment, experts say. Employers commonly specify gender, age and physical appearance in job offers.
然而，性别歧视随处可见。专家说，仅有为数不多的几名女性敢以不正当雇用行为、因怀孕或产假遭解雇或性骚扰等理由与用人单位对簿公堂。用人单位在发布招聘信息是通常会指明性别、年龄和外貌等要求。
There are gaps in the law. A major problem, said Feng Yuan (not related to Angel Feng), is that it does not define gender discrimination. The law also sticks to the longstanding requirement that women retire five years earlier than men at the same jobs, thereby reducing earnings and pensions.
法律本身就有漏洞。冯媛教授说，其中最主要的问题是法律没有对性别歧视作出严格定义。法律还坚持同种工作女性比男性早五年退休的长期做法，因此减少了女性的工资收入和退休金。
In 2008, 67.5 percent of Chinese women over 15 were employed, according to Yang Juhua of Renmin University of China’s Center for Population and Development Studies, citing World Bank statistics. That was a drop from the most recent Chinese government data, from 2000, showing that 71.52 percent of women from 16 through 54 were employed, compared with 82.47 percent of men from 16 through 59. Ms. Yang has calculated that women earn 63.5 percent of men’s salaries, a drop from 64.8 in 2000.
2008年，67.5%的15岁以上中国女性有工作——中国人民大学人口与发展研究所的杨菊华援引世界银行的数据如是说。而中国政府于2000年的数据显示16至54岁的女性中71.52%的人有工作，而16至59岁的男性中，82.47%的人有工作。根据杨菊华的计算，女性收入仅为男性的63.5%，比2000年的数据64.8%又有所下降。
And yet there are many stories of individual success, built on hard work — and some luck. Shi Zaihong’s is one.
Born into a poor rural family in the central province of Anhui, Ms. Shi, now 41, came to Beijing to work as a nanny in 1987. She earned 40 renminbi a month.
当然，也有不少通过自己辛勤工作而取得成功的个案，这其中当然也需要点运气。石再红（音）就是其中之一。现年41岁的石女士来自安徽省的一个贫苦的农村家庭。1987年来到北京开始做保姆，那时候一个月挣40块。
Today, she works 10 cleaning and child-minding jobs, earning 7,000 renminbi a month. With her husband, who runs a small business putting up advertisements, she bought an apartment just outside Beijing for 500,000 renminbi — an astonishing achievement for a migrant worker with just five years’ education.
现在，她同时做着十份打扫和照看孩子的工作，每个月能赚7000块。她的老公经营着一个做广告牌的小生意。两人花了50万在北京近郊买了一套房子，这对一个仅有小学文化程度的外地务工人员来说绝对是惊人的成就。
Ms. Shi’s eyes shine as she talks about her steady accumulation of wealth, far outstripping what her mother was able to save in farming. “I have taken advantage of every opportunity that I had, and I have always worked hard,” she said. “Things are good. Very good.”
说起自己稳定的积蓄，石（音）女士眼睛里闪烁着光芒。那比她的母亲种地能攒的钱不知多出多少倍。她说：“我会好好把握每个机会而且一直勤勤恳恳工作。现在日子过得不错。”
The mother of a 16-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, she can now apply for her children to legally join her because buying property confers this right, she said. The children have always lived in her mountain village of 300, with her parents. “Having to leave your children behind is the hardest thing about being a migrant,” she said.
因为在北京购买了房产，石女士现在可以申请让16岁的孩子和3岁的女儿到北京居住。两个孩子此前一直跟外祖父母生活在偏远山区。石女士说：“在外面打工，最难过的就是和孩子分开。”
Liu Yan, 42, comes from quite a different background. The daughter of an actor and an opera singer from Sichuan Province in the southwest, she worked at China’s first private tour operator and is now a successful business consultant. Sophisticated and well connected, she specializes in putting people together to make a project “go.” She is divorced, with a 10-year-old daughter.
42岁的刘彦（音）的背景则大不相同。她的父母是四川的文艺界人士，她曾供职于中国首家私营旅行社，现在是一名成功的商业咨询师。刘女士成熟稳重、交际面广，专长是集合人才运行各种项目。离异的刘女士有一个十岁的女儿。
“I’ve been quite free and straightforward all my life,” she said. But “my family often calls me stupid for it. It’s not really the way you’re supposed to act here.” The upshot is that she feels her prospects of remarriage are dim.
“Tradition has come back strongly, but it’s not always a good thing,” she said. “With Chinese men, there is a line you cannot cross. They have ‘face’ that you have to respect. Anyway, most of them don’t find me feminine. They like young girls. They think a woman is beautiful when she’s ‘sweet.”’
她说：“我这辈子都活得很自由，为人处事不拐弯抹角。但是家里人总说我傻。直接并不是这个社会接受的行为方式。”刘女士觉得她再婚的可能性微乎其微。
China’s more well-to-do women, she said, are expected to tolerate a husband’s multiple mistresses. Concubinage, outlawed by the Communists after they took power in 1949, has re-emerged.
“Most women just assume that sooner or later it will happen,” she said. “Men have power. Women are weak, and they have too much to lose. But I want to be happy. I could not accept that.”
她还说，在中国，生活优越的女性要容忍丈夫在外面扎花惹草已经是大家心照不宣的事情了。1949年新中国成立后被认定为非法行为的妾侍制度仿佛又死灰复燃了。“大部分女性觉得老公在外沾花惹草迟早会发生的。男人是强势的。而女人就比较弱势，她们失去的太多了。但是我想活得开心点，那些是我不能接受的。”刘女士说。
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