久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
World
Home / World / World Watch

Pandemic has put gender inequality in spotlight

By Harvey Morris | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-03-25 09:38
Share
Share - WeChat
Women hold placards during a demonstration to call for gender equality and demanding an end to violence against women to mark the International Women's Day in Brussels on March 8, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

The decision of a Beijing court to compensate a divorced woman for five years of unpaid housework has struck a chord well beyond China's borders amid a growing global debate on entrenched gender inequality.

The ruling came amid rising concerns that measures to combat COVID-19 have had a much bigger impact on women than on men and may have set back decades of advances in their economic status.

Operating under China's new Civil Code, the court decided in February that the spouse who contributed most to raising children, caring for elderly relatives and doing the housework is entitled to compensation in a divorce.

In most societies, and not just China, that is almost always the woman.

In the Beijing case, the ex-husband was ordered to pay 50,000 yuan ($7,670) to reflect the fact that his spouse had spent more time on raising their child and looking after their home.

The decision was widely reported in China and beyond, and was seized on in social media as an advance for the economic rights of women.

International business magazine The Economist reported that the ruling had been widely celebrated, saying that the division of housework was also unequal in the West, with women shouldering the majority of domestic chores and child-care responsibilities.

Coverage of the ruling by the BBC attracted a plethora of comments, many reflecting that of one viewer who said: "For hundreds of years women have been doing and continue doing the bulk of unpaid labor, which includes domestic chores and child-rearing. Society would not even exist without that 'invisible' labor."

But while many cheered what they saw as a small step toward a further recognition of women's economic rights, others warned that wider progress could be stalled by a pandemic during which women make up 70 percent of the world's healthcare workforce.

In an address this month to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the pandemic was having a devastating impact on women and girls, illustrating how deeply gender inequality remained embedded in the world's political, social and economic systems.

"The damage is incalculable and will resound down the decades, into future generations," he warned.

Women accounted for most of the jobs that had been hit the hardest by the pandemic, while their unpaid care work had risen dramatically owing to factors such as stay-at-home orders, the closure of schools and childcare facilities, and an increased need to care for the elderly, according to the UN chief.

Men continued to dominate public life, Guterres said, and he called for women to be more involved in decision-making processes. He said there is a need to "fix our systems. Pandemic recovery is our chance to chart a path to an equal future."

The secretary-general's concerns were reflected in comments on the sidelines of the commission gathering by Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, who said the COVID-19 pandemic had worsened the challenges that women face in education, health and employment and increased poverty among women.

US philanthropist Melinda Gates sounded an early alarm in July last year when she argued that, if the pandemic stalled progress toward gender equality, the cost would be counted in the trillions of dollars in lost global income.

"As policymakers work to protect and rebuild economies, their response must account for the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women and the unique roles women will have to play in mitigating the pandemic's harm," she wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine.

Looking to the post-pandemic recovery, Sanda Ojiambo, head of the UN Global Compact, wrote this month that "to build back better, we must do so in a way that is more gender inclusive and try to create a world in which the worth of men and women counts equally".

She cited the example of three counties in the US state of Hawaii that had established a "feminist economy recovery plan" and asserted that the road to post-pandemic recovery "should not be across women's backs".

The framers of the plan noted that caregiving, considered the province of women, was necessary for economic production but generally unrewarded, thereby structurally subordinating women in society.

Outlining their post-pandemic strategy, the Hawaiian planners said: "Rather than rush to rebuild the status quo of inequality, we should encourage a deep structural transition to an economy that better values the work we know is essential to sustaining us."

Like much of the current debate on gender inequality and the pandemic effect, this echoed the widespread view that a situation in which many women worldwide are still underrepresented, undereducated and underpaid is not only morally wrong, but also makes zero economic sense.

Harvey Morris is a senior media consultant for China Daily UK.

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 天天五月天丁香婷婷深爱综合 | 亚洲免费视 | 免费播放美女一级毛片 | 欧美黄色xxx | 国产伦理久久精品久久久久 | 国产日韩欧美一区二区三区在线 | 国产性生交xxxxx免费 | 亚洲综合网在线观看 | 美女视频一区二区三区在线 | 美女视频黄视大全视频免费网址 | 国产一级真人毛爱做毛片 | 日韩中文精品亚洲第三区 | 亚洲日本在线观看视频 | 91资源在线 | 久久免费视频6 | 国产视频久久 | 97一级毛片全部免费播放 | 香蕉毛片| 女人张开腿等男人桶免费视频 | 成人毛片手机版免费看 | 成 人 动漫在线观看网站网站 | 中文字幕水野优香在线网在线 | 一区二区日韩欧美 | 新版天堂资源中文在线 | 真人一级毛片 | 日日摸夜夜搂人人要 | 精品久久久久久国产 | 成年人免费在线视频观看 | 国产亚洲精品看片在线观看 | 欧美三级一区二区 | 成人性色生活片全黄 | 在线成人欧美 | 欧美日本一区二区三区 | 国产成人福利美女观看视频 | 欧美一级毛片在线 | 成人免费国产欧美日韩你懂的 | 亚洲精品国产精品国自产 | 成人怡红院视频在线观看 | 久久在线资源 | 国产在线观看网址你懂得 | 国产精品成人免费视频 |