Legal design for protection of women's rights

The ratio of career women to housewives in China, compared with many other countries, is high. Therefore, women in China need better protection in terms of maternity leave and other benefits, especially now that the government has allowed all couples to have two children.

But many employers in China are reluctant to grant even the legally binding maternity leave, let alone give women extra leave, in violation of the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests. In fact, quite a large number of employers, in order to avoid the hassle of having to deal with women's labor rights and maternity benefits in the future, refuse to recruit them in the first place, which is one of the worst forms of gender discrimination.

To effectively protect women's rights, therefore, the government has to take certain factors into consideration while drafting legislation. First, it should encourage the employers to recruit women. For example, the government can offer some tax concessions to the companies whose certain percentage of employees are women.