The Women's Commission has called for part-time workers to receive paternity leave rights and travel subsidies after a survey of 3,000 local residents found.

The survey showed more than two-thirds of the participants believed sexual discrimination continues in the workplace.

The commission's Chairwoman Sophia Kao said Monday granting leave for new fathers would help reduce discrimination against working women who had to take leave after becoming pregnant.

The transport subsidy scheme, currently available only for full-time, low income employees, should be extended to cover part-timers since more than 60 percent of their ranks were made up of women, the commission said.

The study, which is the last in a series of surveys conducted between February and May in 2010 by the commission to gauge the status of women at home, work and social environments, found "most people still considered that the discrimination against women in the workplace was common," Kao said.

Discrimination came in the forms of differences in income and promotion prospects, as well as chances for employment for pregnant women and those responsible for the care of family members.

More than 70 percent of respondents thought men stood a better chance of promotion than women of similar age and abilities, Kao said.

"Family responsibility" was a major reason why some women did not seek employment, and why 25 percent of women surveyed "did not want themselves to be very successful" because they perceived "conflicts between commitment at work and family duties," Kao said.

Evely Ng, co-convener of the Women's Studies Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong, said the decision of whether to give up a career to become a family-care-giver is leading to depressed fertility rates among younger couples as both husbands and wives can not decide.

Ko said a glass ceiling, or invisible barrier against career advancement for women, was still present in Hong Kong.

She said more than one-third of respondents did not prefer female managers or supervisors while more than 70 percent said men had better prospects for promotion.

According to the Census and Statistics Department, men made up 70 percent of managers and administrators in 2009.

Gender attitudes were more conservative among men, with 44 percent saying that a man's job was to earn money while the women's was to do housework and tend to the family, while only 34 percent of women agreed.

The commission will use the findings to formulate its Women's Development Goals, an action plan to bring greater equality between the sexes in the next five to 10 years.

China Daily

(HK Edition 02/15/2011 page1)