Protection with Discrimination? Rethinking China’s Gender Equality Legislation in Employment
Abstract: This paper examines the structural tensions within China’s gender equality legislation in employment, with a focus on the dual-track legal framework that combines gender-neutral anti-discrimination norms with gender-specific protective measures. It first traces the evolution of legal protections for women workers from the state-led formal equality of the planned-economy era to the fragmented, rule-based governance of the socialist market economy. It then outlines the current legal framework and argues that, although China’s regime formally promotes both formal and substantive equality, it continues to prioritise special protection in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes and perpetuate labour-market marginalisation. The paper further identifies key normative and institutional shortcomings – such as definitional ambiguity, weak enforcement, and institutionalised sexism – and proposes a reform pathway based on unified legal definitions, the principle of reasonable accommodation, punitive damages, and multi-level support mechanisms. In doing so, it contributes to the theoretical and policy discourse on reconciling protection with equality, offering a conceptual framework for constructing a more coherent and context-sensitive anti-discrimination regime in China’s labour market.
