中国科技业招聘广告怪象：很多只限男性，还喜欢吹嘘女员工高颜值

中国的职场歧视往往从招聘广告就开始了。

本周一非营利性组织人权观察发布报告称，中国知名科技企业，比如阿里巴巴集团、百度和腾讯在网站发布招聘广告时，经常强调某些岗位仅面向男性。

总部位于纽约的人权观察组织认为，女性面临的职场歧视还有其他形式，比如中国企业经常对女性求职者提出身高、体重、声音或者样貌方面的要求，往往与岗位本身无关。该组织称，三大科技业巨头还经常自夸公司有“美女”或是“女神”，助长了普遍存在的职场性别歧视。

人权观察组织报告写道：“中国的招聘广告中随处可见将女性物化，即仅将女性当成性欲对象的例子。”

人权观察分析了2013年以来发布的3.6万逾条广告，其中大部分公布在企业和政府的网站以及社交媒体平台。研究人员主要查找和性别偏好有关的词语，比如“仅限男性”和“适合女性”。

报告称，今年1月在阿里巴巴网站搜索发现，含有“仅限男性”和“男性优先”之类条件的招聘广告包括政府事务高级专员和众包交付经理。人权观察称，阿里巴巴用于招聘的社交媒体账号公布了一些年轻女员工的照片，称她们是“深夜福利”。

腾讯道歉

人权观察还提到，腾讯一则广告中，一名男员工自称，有漂亮的女性存在是他加入公司的理由；百度一则广告中也有男员工表示，身边有美貌女同事是他喜欢工作的原因。

“这是公然地物化女性，”人权观察的执行董事肯尼思·罗斯在香港举行的新闻发布会上表示，“工作环境很不友好。”

在一封电邮声明中，腾讯表示已经调查相关事件，将立即整改。腾讯称：“我们对出现的状况感到抱歉，将迅速行动确保不会再次发生。腾讯重视多元化的背景，根据才华和能力招聘员工。”

百度表示，对相关招聘广告深感遗憾，称之属于“个案”，不符合公司的价值观，在人权观察组织的报告发布前，公司就已撤下涉事广告。百度称，公司有45%的员工是女性，中高层职位上女性占比也类似。

阿里巴巴称会定期审查招聘广告，“明确规定”不看性别机会平等。阿里表示，女性员工占公司员工总数的47%，女性占管理层人员的三分之一。

艰难斗争

大洋另一端的美国硅谷，科技公司正深陷歧视女性的指控，而从这份报告来看，中国职场性别歧视也是无处不在。这也显示出，中国政府领导层若想兑现反对职场歧视的承诺要面临多大挑战。

从一些指标看，中国女性的生活环境已经改善。全球知名管理咨询公司麦肯锡称，中国的产妇死亡率下降，女性的高等教育入学率有所上升。麦肯锡定于本周二发布的报告称，中国在抵制职场性别歧视方面的进步超过亚太区其他国家的平均水平。

麦肯锡在电邮声明中表示：“中国科技业堪称光辉榜样，因为行业里的女性领导具有全球影响力。”

#MeToo标签

报告发布之际，中国正努力控制日渐成型的反性骚扰运动#MeToo，审查了诸多类似#MeToo的社交媒体话题。在美国，已有多位知名的高管因性骚扰辞职或者被解雇，其中不乏好莱坞大牌制作人哈维·韦恩斯坦、美国全国广播公司（NBC）主持人马特·劳尔和亚马逊影业主管罗伊·布莱斯之类名流。然而在中国，很少有人真正追究性骚扰。

在中国企业界，2017年1月，腾讯曾为公司部门年会上安排有性暗示的游戏道歉。在场者在网上发布的图片显示，参加游戏的女员工要双膝跪地，用嘴打开夹在男员工双腿中间的水瓶盖。

人权观察组织称，歧视女性的不仅包括科技企业。研究人员分析2017年中央政府招聘要求发现，有1700多个岗位限制应聘者为男性或者男性优先，约占职位总数的13%。

世界经济论坛2017年对各国女性经济机会的排名中，中国排在全球第86位，较2016年第53位的排名出现下滑。同样在世界经济论坛对女性全球地位的调查中，中国在女性教育程度方面排在第102位，也低于2006年，当时排名第78位。在健康与生存方面，中国排第144位，和十年前的排名持平。在政治权利方面，中国排第77位，十年前排在第52位。

旧金山的一位天使投资人马瑞（音译）表示，中国职场女性在相貌上面对很大压力。 “颜值”，字面意思就是外表指数，已成为日常工作中常见词。

“颜值”指数

马瑞说：“背后的潜台词就是，用‘颜值’判断基本的工作能力很正常。没有人提出质疑。乍听起来非常无礼，但十分常见。要抵抗潮流相当困难。”

最近，总部位于北京的智能手机制造商小米的一名业务员在微信朋友圈透露，小米招聘时主要看“颜值”。眼下小米正努力通过首次公开募股（ICO）获得1000亿美元估值。他还说，小米的女员工都很漂亮，如果用上小米6X手机美颜滤镜颜值更高。

面向女性企业家初创公司的新加坡风投机构SoGal Ventures创始人孙伊晴指出：“这让男性可以根据外貌评判女性，类似措辞让人觉得女性就应照此评价。”

小米公司在声明中宣称要打造公平的职场，始终秉持“高标准，确保公司内部（男女）平等。”（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审稿：夏林

Workplace discrimination in China often begins with help-wanted ads.

Job recruitment websites routinely feature advertisements from prominent technology employers such as Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu and Tencent Holdings for positions that are open only to men, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch on Monday.

And the New York-based group said job discrimination against women takes other forms: Chinese companies often have requirements on the height, weight, voice or appearance of female applicants that have nothing to do with their qualifications for the job. With the three big internet companies boasting they have “beautiful girls” or “goddesses,” those ads contribute to widespread gender discrimination in the workplace, Human Rights Watch said.

“Sexual objectification of women — treating women as a mere object of sexual desire — is prevalent in Chinese job advertising,” the report said.

Human Rights Watch analyzed more than 36,000 advertisements, most of them posted since 2013, on corporate and government websites and social media platforms. Researchers looked for terms related to gender preferences such as “men only” and “suitable for women.”

A search of Alibaba’s website in January found “men only” or “men preferred” ads for jobs including government affairs senior specialist and crowd-sourcing delivery manager, according to the report. Human Rights Watch said the e-commerce giant’s recruitment social media account published photos of young female employees and described them as “late night benefits.”

Tencent Apology

A Tencent ad featured a male employee saying the presence of beautiful women was one reason he joined the company, and in a Baidu ad a male staff said having attractive female colleagues was one reason he was happy at work, Human Rights Watch said.

“There’s just a blatant objectification of these women,” said Executive Director Kenneth Roth at a press briefing in Hong Kong. “This creates a hostile work environment.”

In an emailed statement, Tencent said it has investigated the incidents and will make immediate changes. “We are sorry they occurred and we will take swift action to ensure they do not happen again,” it said. “Tencent values diverse backgrounds and recruits staff based on talent and ability.”

Baidu said it ”deeply” regrets what it described as “isolated instances” of job postings that didn’t align with its values, and that the company had removed those ads before the report was released. Baidu said women account for 45% of its employees, with mid- and senior positions reflecting a similar number.

Alibaba said it conducts regular reviews of recruitment ads and has “well-defined guidelines” on providing equal opportunities regardless of gender. It said 47% of the company’s employees are women and women leaders occupy one-third of its management positions.

Uphill Battle

The report offers a glimpse into how ubiquitous sexist practices are in Chinese workplaces — as tech companies in Silicon Valley are struggling to combat allegationsof discrimination against women. It also underscores the challenges President Xi Jinping faces in trying to follow through on a pledge to fight against workplace discrimination.

By some measures, conditions have improved for women in China. Maternal mortality rates have declined and tertiary education rates have risen, according to McKinsey & Co. The management consultancy is set to release a report Tuesday showing China’s progress on workplace gender issues is above average compared with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

“China’s technology sector stands out as a shining example of a space where female entrepreneurship has had global impact,” McKinsey said in an emailed statement.

#MeToo Hashtags

The reports come at a time when China has sought to control a nascent #MeToo movement, with the government censoring hashtags similar to #MeToo. While Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, NBC anchor Matt Lauer and Amazon Studios boss Roy Price are among prominent U.S. executives to have resigned or been fired because of sexual harassment, China hasn’t had a similar reckoning.

In the corporate world, Tencent in January 2017 apologized for a sexually suggestive game organized at a division’s annual party after attendees posted footage online of kneeling female staff who appeared to try to use their mouths to open water bottles tucked between men’s legs.

Tech companies aren’t the only employers that have discriminated against women, Human Rights Watch said. Of postings for central government jobs in 2017 that researchers analyzed, about 13% — or more than 1,700 postings — included a requirement or preference for male applicants.

China was 86th worldwide in a 2017 World Economic Forum ranking of countries offering the best economic opportunities to women, down from 53rd in 2006. In the same survey of women’s status worldwide, China ranked 102nd in educational attainment, down from No. 78 in 2006; China was 144th in health and survival, compared to 114th a decade earlier; China was 77th in political empowerment, down from 52nd.

Chinese women in the workplace face intense pressure based on their looks, said Rui Ma, a San Francisco-based angel investor. The term “yanzhi,” or physical appearance metric, is part of everyday business language, she said.

‘Yanzhi’ Metric

“The underlying idea is that it’s totally normal to rely on your ‘yanzhi’ as a primary job competence,” Ma said. “People don’t really question it. It sounds extremely offensive but it’s been normalized. It’s going to be extremely hard to fight.”

An operations staff member at Xiaomi, the Beijing-based smartphone maker that is targeting a $100 billion valuation in an initial public offering, said on the social media platform WeChat Moments recently that the company mostly looks at “yanzhi” when hiring. He also said Xiaomi’s female employees are beautiful — and are even more beautiful when using the Xiaomi 6X phone to take selfies.

“This gives men the liberty and entitlement to judge women based on their appearance,” said Pocket Sun, Singapore-based founder of SoGal Ventures, which invests in startups led by female entrepreneurs. “This kind of language leads people to think that this is the way women need to be judged.”

In a statement, Xiaomi said it is committed to fairness in the workplace and always places “high standards to ensure equality within the organization.”