Though it has been generally mandated that males and females have equal power and opportunity, gender stereotyping still exists when it comes to political participation, a survey by the Women's Commission revealed on Monday.

"The equality of men and women is merely superficial phenomena," said Sophia Kao, Chairperson of the Commission.

Kao indicated that the gender bias continues. The survey showed that about 40 percent of respondents agreed that male performed better political leadership than female.

This reflects that gender stereotyping existed to a certain degree in our society between men and women in terms of political participation, she said.

Women's political participation was also lower than that of men according to the survey.

A male-female comparison revealed that men's participation rates were higher than females in rallies, and parades or demonstrations.

Women, however, tend to express their views and demands in a more quiescent manner. 23.2 percent of female respondents chose to participate in signing petitions.

On district consultations, the participation rate of men was also higher than that of women, in terms of participation in seminars, briefings or residents meetings regarding policies or livelihood issues, and participation in consultation activities by local bodies.

The survey found nearly 70 percent of the community agreed that both genders had equal power and equal development opportunities in society. Eighty-five percent of respondents agreed that women were independent nowadays.

In addition, the survey also found that neither women's self-assessment of their social status, or men's evaluation of social status of their spouses/companions, was high. Men's evaluation scored 3.35, while the women's self-rating was 3.36, on a five-point scale.

People tend to accept the middling status of women in the society quite well. The satisfaction level of both genders regarding women's social status reached 3.57 and 3.54 on a five-point scale, which suggested that gender awareness should be strengthened, said Kao.

The commission believes that engaging women in the public decision making process would help advance women's status.

Kao calls for the government to take the lead and to allow the opportunity for more women to be involved in decision making process of current affairs.

In District Councils and Legislative Council, women occupy only less than 19 percent of seats, and only 32.1 percent of government directors are female, she added, stressing that women had a quite low participation rate at the decision-making level.

The commission also believes that political parties should encourage more females to pursue careers in politics and to train more female leaders in future.

The survey was commissioned by the Women's Commission and conducted by the research company Policy 21 Limited. A total of 3,002 Hong Kong residents were interviewed face-to-face from February to May 2010. The response rate was 66 percent.

China Daily

(HK Edition 01/04/2011 page1)