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| SITTING atop the Legislative Council building in Central is a statue of the blindfolded Lady of Justice, a remnant of the days when the building was Hong Kong's Supreme Court. With a sword in one hand and a set of scales in the other, she represents fairness. The scales are balanced, symbolising equality. |
And so it is in Hong Kong where the laws have been designed to ensure that everyone is treated on an equal footing, regardless of sex, creed, nationality or physical and mental ability.
The broad perception of equality conjures up the Battle of the Sexes; her against him (or should it be him against her!) to secure an equal footing on the promotion ladder. Indeed, male domination of the upper levels of the workforce was the case until perhaps the past couple of decades. The Government was no exception, but that was to change.
The move for women's rights
Former Chief Secretary for the Administration, Anson Chan Fang On-sang joined the civil service in 1962 when male and female civil servants did not receive equal remuneration. In the early 1970s, when she was a Senior Administrative Officer she helped establish the Association of Female Senior Government Officers to fight for better rights for women civil servants. In 1980 she was appointed Director of Social Welfare and from 1987 to 1993 was Secretary for Economic Services, the first Secretary post to be held by a woman. Then she went one better: in 1993 she was appointed Chief Secretary responsible for the day-to-day running of the Government. She was the first woman to hold the number two post in the Government's hierarchy.
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Others followed: Mrs Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee became Secretary for Security (1998 — 2003), Miss Elsie Leung Oi-si has the post of Secretary for Justice, and Dr Sarah Liao Sau-tung is Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works.
Also, the number of women holding directorate posts in the civil service has more than doubled in the last decade: from 138 in 1994 to more than 300 at the end of 2004, representing about 26% of the entire directorate.
Government policy
According to a Legislative Council (LegCo) brief on race relations, the Government's policy is to:
- eliminate and combat all forms of racial discriminations;
- promote racial equality and communal harmony; and
- encourage ethnic minorities settled in Hong Kong to integrate into the wider society, while retaining their cultural identity.
In 1998, the Home Affairs Bureau published a Code of Practice against discrimination in employment on the grounds of race to facilitate self-regulation on the part of employers and employees in eliminating discriminatory practices in employment.
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