Men still hold most top jobs in Hong Kong public sector
Women make up just a third of top civil servants and hold a little over a quarter of seats on public bodies, despite push for equality
Women may outnumber men in Hong Kong, but the upper echelon of the civil service remains a man's world, figures published by the Census and Statistics Department yesterday show.
Only a third of high-level civil servants are women, and the ratio is even lower for the city's advisory and statutory bodies; just 27 per cent of non-official members appointed to such bodies are women.
The gender disparity remains despite an ambitious report published by the Women's Commission in December 2011, which identified a lack of women in senior public-sector roles as a key issue the city needed to deal with.
"I've been trying to do more; putting forward more names of women candidates as positions come up. I do think we've been making some progress, but it's slow progress," said Sophia Kao Ching-chi, a former head of the Women's Commission, on her work for the government's Central Policy Unit think tank.
Kao led the team that issued the Hong Kong Women's Development Goals in 2011, which made adding more women to influential public-sector jobs a key priority.
While on paper the city's women enjoy equality, there was still sex discrimination and women were less likely to be involved in making important decisions that shaped the direction of the city, the team's report said.
The commission also urged the government to promote the importance of participation in public affairs to women, as a 2010 survey showed that more than 70 per cent of women would not accept appointment to a government body even if invited.
