[Beijing Diary] Listen to the Voices of Women

"Work-life balance, how long do we have to keep answering this question?"

On the 7th, Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment company, held a small exchange workshop at a hotel in Beijing to commemorate International Women's Day (March 8). Laughter erupted from the audience. The speaker was Hu Xiaoman, Director of Huawei's Artificial Intelligence Computing Framework (MindSpore). After a light discussion, when an attendee asked about tips for achieving 'work-life balance,' she responded jokingly. She said, "If you have the desire to advance in any field, you probably don't need to worry too much about balancing," but also added, "Please ask men this question too," which earned applause. This was also a sharp critique of the expectation for working women to be perfect superwomen in both family and work.

Hua Wei's AI computing framework (MindSpore) director Hu Xiaoman (right) is listening to questions from the audience. (Photo by Hua Wei)

On the same day, Huawei released survey results showing that women's confidence in digital skills is significantly lower compared to men, based on a survey of 21,000 people from seven countries including the U.S., China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the U.K. Anna Schneider, a professor of business psychology at Trier University of Applied Sciences in Germany, who conducted the survey, stated in her presentation, "Even women in IT and telecommunications, who generally have relatively high digital skills, perceived their digital abilities as 14% lower compared to their non-digital skills, whereas men believed their digital skills were 31% better." She urged women not to shy away from digitalization. She emphasized, "We must face reality. Remote work enabled by digitalization will create greater value for women," calling for efforts not only in actual digital skills but also in building confidence.

The reason for detailing an event from a single company is to discuss China's awareness of gender equality and how it is addressed. Like South Korea, women in China earn less than men and are often excluded from key socio-economic positions. Globally, China ranks low on the gender equality index (102nd out of 143 countries, World Economic Forum).

However, the recent pace of change in social awareness among Chinese citizens is not significantly different from that in major advanced countries like the U.S. or Europe (of course, some local and ethnic minority cultures present separate issues). Beyond pointing out and correcting discriminatory behaviors, women themselves have reached a stage where they diagnose problems and discuss what changes to lead. The aforementioned Huawei study is a representative example.

The eagerness is also felt in Chinese media covering the ongoing National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (the "Two Sessions"), which have been actively featuring interviews with female representatives. Some female representatives used conventional expressions like "warm leadership" and "gentle inclusiveness," but most showed a serious attitude toward their expertise and heavy responsibilities. On the 9th, when related articles flooded the media, the keyword "Listen to women's voices" briefly became a top search term on Baidu, the largest portal site.

President Xi Jinping recently addressed female representatives, committee members, and staff attending the Two Sessions, publicly wishing "success to women of all ethnic groups and social strata, as well as women compatriots in Hong Kong and Taiwan." Although this was a formal remark commemorating Women's Day, it carries some meaning when compared to countries where even such formal gestures are absent.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.