Shanghai targets sexual harassment

As is often the case in China, it was left to local governments to further refine and enact the law. Several cities and provinces, including Shaanxi and Anhui, have drafted rules similar to Shanghai's.

Shanghai has become the symbol of China's increasing economic dominance, and the city's media-savvy leaders pushed for the law, in part, to enhance Shanghai's business reputation. Several experts said that while women's groups played a role in the law's passage, it was business image more than domestic pressure that propelled Shanghai's government into action.

A 'culture of silence' for Chinese women

Sexual harassment is only one of several gender-related topics, once considered off-limits, that have now been propelled into the public discourse. A 2006 survey conducted by ChinaHR.com reported that university-educated men in Shanghai can expect to earn one-third more than their female counterparts. The survey received a great deal of media attention and sparked anger among many of the city's women.

Nevertheless, It's hard to determine how widespread sexual harassment is in Shanghai, in part because of "a dominant culture of silence for women," says Liu Bohong of the All-China Women's Federation. As a result, data on sexual harassment is still limited.

The most authoritative study on sexual harassment in urban China appeared in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Using 2000 data from the Chinese Health and Family Life survey, the study found that 12.5 percent of all women and 15.1 percent of urban women had experienced sexual harassment in the previous year. Further, the study reported that in general, harassment came not from authority figures but from co-workers. Yet another survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reported that 40 percent of women in private or foreign-funded companies had been sexually harassed.

While attitudes towards women have improved since the rise of the Communists and their ideas of gender equity in 1949, the lack of legal and social recourse for such cases has sustained the "culture of silence." A survey conducted by the popular Chinese website Tom.com found that only 20 percent of the 8,000 respondents thought it appropriate for women to approach the authorities if harassed.

Xu Anqi, the director of the Center for Women's Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, notes that "some women worry that they will be dismissed for bringing complaints or will be accused of seducing their co-workers or bosses."

While the law appears to represent progress, the extent of its impact is hard to determine. "The lack of case-law precedent is a significant problem here," says Mr. Durham.

Although some men said they were worried that harmless flirting will now be mistaken as a sexual advance, Ms. Liu welcomes the shift in attitude. "Men need to start thinking, 'What kind of joke is welcome? What comments offend the dignity of women?' "

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