But there was another element to consider: as with the Business Council, if there are not suitable women members at the top to do the job, why aren't there? Are women so incompetent, so lacking in ambition or public spirit that they cannot get to the top? We think not. We believe that the reason is not just unequal pay, sexual harrassment, offensive advertisements, unemployment for women over 30 in the service industry, lack of opportunities for those previously part of the manufacturing industry, and inadequate child care facilities; there is also the so-called 'glass ceiling ́, beyond which few women advance. Even in the civil service, where equal pay was achieved after a campaign over 20 years ago, a percentage of 13.4 women among the senior levels is seen by the government (acting Secretary for Home Affairs, Legco, 17 July 1991) as something to be proud of. Discrimination meets a Hong Kong woman from the moment she is born: and thus it permeates the poltical process, making democracy a fallacy unless you do something about it.
If you are right that you did not hear a loud enough voice from women during the planning stages of your address, why was that? It is for the same reason that your suggestions for change to the democratic process will, in their implementation, also fail to include women. Women here are not yet politically assertive. They have been brought up to believe that their place is in the home, with their mouths shut on public matters. In recent years many have made their way into the workforce, but still they have kept silent on issues of discrimination; they have swallowed their anger and even blamed themselves. Those women who get involved in politics, whether on the broad stage, or as members of women's groups campaigning for social reform, are the exception.
When you propose, therefore, to increase the democratic element by, for example, making District Boards and Municipal Councils fully directly elected, rather than partly appointed, where does that leave women? Probably with fewer members than before. There has been increasing representation of community-minded women through appointment to those bodies, undemocratic though that was. And it should be said that appointed women here are seldom those who make a difference to other women's lives, but at least it gets people used to the idea of women in politics. Now women will hesitate to put themselves forward for public election and women voters, let alone men, will hesitate to vote for them when they do.
Since the increase in direct elections to the Legislative Council in September 1991, the decrease there in the number of women has been marked. Before the elections, there were 13 women members of Legco 1 indirectly elected, 2
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