[Editor's Note] Jiao Tianrui, a sophomore at the Communication University of China, participated in this year's Two Sessions as an intern reporter for Asia News Weekly. On the occasion of March 8 Women's Day, she sends this article, saying that she wants to "join the Premier in speaking out for the elimination of gender discrimination in the workplace"!

     Today is the United Nations Day for Women's Rights and the International Day of Peace, and the day of the second plenary session of the thirteenth session of the National People's Congress. In the government work report issued by Premier Li Keqiang on March 5, the Premier explicitly stated that he would "resolutely prevent and rectify gender and identity discrimination in employment," with the intention of vigorously eliminating gender discrimination in employment and paying attention to women's labor protection and fair employment.

     At the same time, on several major online e-commerce platforms in China, marketing gimmicks such as "Goddess Day, Queen's Day, and Girls' Day" have been used to promote consumerism while narrowing down the term "women", defining women through whitewashed promotional texts and labeling, and stigmatizing the term "women". Underneath the seemingly eulogizing of women is a nakedly patriarchal stereotype, always revealing a stereotypical and flat view of women as independent personalities.

     In an interview with Ms. Haixia, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), she told the reporter: "I prefer March 8 Women's Day, because this is a holiday belonging to all women, and goddesses, queens, and so on, to say a little bit of other people attached to some of your colors, far less than their own struggles to come to such a woman's equal status, and more so that I feel prouder of myself, more confident. Whether you labor at home or at work, do what you can do, I think you are a very competent woman." This is the concept that Women's Day itself, hopes to convey to women in general.

     In 2017, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women released the Women in Politics Map 2017, which recorded women's participation in the executive branch of government and parliament, and it counted the women who participated in politics and decision-making globally at that time, including Heads of State, Speakers of Parliaments, and ministerial positions. In this report, our country ranked 74th in terms of women's participation in politics at that time, accounting for 699/2947. With regard to the Map of Women's Participation in Politics, the author has not yet been able to find the relevant data for the past two years on the Internet, so I will not talk about it for the time being.

     The 2019 China Workplace Gender Differences Report released by internet recruitment platform BOSS Direct Employment suggests that gender stereotypes make it tougher for women to find jobs and get promoted, which is precisely why Premier Li Keqiang put forward an important reason for resolutely preventing and correcting gender and identity discrimination in employment in the government's work report.The average salary for women in China in 2018 was 6,497 yuan, with a pay average of 78.31 percent of men's TP3T, government departments should pay more attention and take relevant measures to take action for fair competition and equal pay for equal work that women strive for in the workplace.

     As early as 1919, Mao Zedong mentioned in "The Problem of Women's Self-Reliance" that "a woman's physical strength is no less than that of a man's, but she cannot work during her childbearing years, so men take advantage of her weakness to exploit her, to exploit her imperfections and to take advantage of her weaknesses, to make her 'obedience' as a condition of exchange for 'food' and to make her 'food' a blessing". food'. This is the general reason why women are suppressed and cannot turn over a new leaf. On the other hand, who among human beings is not born of a woman? The birth of a woman is the key to the continuity of the human race. How dare men forget this great favor and oppress them because of a mere economic relationship, so to speak."

     To this day, there is still discrimination and oppression against women in the workplace, whether in public opinion or at job fairs. Whether married or not, the unfair treatment of women in the workplace has not diminished and has become commonplace. As a trainee reporter who participated in the coverage of the two sessions, I was also a female student studying photography and videography at the Communication University of China. During my participation in the coverage of the two sessions, as a photojournalist, I was also able to deeply realize that there is a clear imbalance in the field of female photography and videography practitioners, not only in the types of work such as journalism or photography, but also in the workplace, where there should have been more positions and more jobs that are closed to women.

     The opportunities we were meant to have, we have to earn them ourselves. From the time when women could hold up half the sky to today's reform and opening up, work-related gender discrimination still continues to affect our lives, and we look forward to the efforts of government departments to improve gender and identity discrimination in employment in 2019.