Hong Kong must ensure motherhood no longer derails women’s careers: advocates

Hong Kong must do more to shatter the glass ceilings at its roots, moving beyond token diversity to ensure motherhood no longer derails women’s careers, advocates have said on International Women’s Day.Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Sunday that women were “holding up more than half the sky” for Hong Kong as they accounted for 54 per cent of the population and comprised half of the government, legal and accounting workforce, with increasing representation in corporate leadership.The saying “women hold up half the sky” is a well-known slogan from late China" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="7909" data-entity-type="organization">Communist Party of China leader Mao Zedong, aimed at encouraging women to join the workforce after the country’s civil war in 1949.“These figures are the result of the government’s years-long effort to promote equal opportunities and showcase women’s contribution to Hong Kong,” Lee said at a cocktail reception.He added the government would continue to promote women’s development by fostering an enabling environment, empowering them and educating the public.However, Nicole Yuen Shuk-kam, founder and CEO of the Workplace Women Index, an organisation that tracks progress in the disclosure of women-related workplace policies and practices, said more needed to be done to truly achieve gender equity.