Hong Kong needs to talk about the gender pay gap, not just who wears the trousers or apron

Gender-sensitive gift giving is one thing, but Luisa Tam says the city needs to address stark inequality in the workplace as well as domestic stereotypes

Luisa Tam

Published: 3:05pm, 18 Feb 2019

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How would you react if someone gave you an apron as a gift? Would you be offended if you were a woman? Would it be an entirely different matter if you were a man?

I recently received an apron and some cooking ingredients in a gift pack after attending a food-tasting event. The guests were mostly women and only a few men, but none of the attendees seemed offended from what I gathered. It often comes down to context, as to how it is done and the intention, both implied and perceived.

This year’s Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but this day of love and romance can sometimes bring out the inequality between the sexes when it comes to offering gifts.

Along the same vein, the HSBC staff in various Hong Kong branches had a bone to pick with their employer, who with undoubtedly good intentions offered promotional Valentine’s Day discount deals to staff. Unfortunately, the campaign was seen as stereotypically sexist.

Male chefs cook on television, wearing aprons. Luisa Tam recalls how she received an apron as a gift, but it wasn’t an issue of gender sensitivity. Photo: AFP

An in-house online advertisement depicting products from a third-party promoted gifts “For Him”, such as tech toys and electronic devices, and items “For Her”, which were of a domestic nature, such as vacuum cleaners and a blender.

We know what the gender implications were when they put the promotional package together, so say no more.

You, like the staff, were probably flabbergasted by that. But it was not a unique case. Many retailers remain adept at keeping gender binaries alive in their product displays, be it clothing or other daily necessities. The women’s and men’s sections are always very clearly defined with no blurred lines in Hong Kong and Asia, although in many parts of the world gender-neutral fashion and retail styles are becoming the new normal.

Since the gendered retail approach is so entrenched here, it is no wonder why biased and gender stereotypes often seem innocuous and are overlooked in the minds of senior management at some companies.

Men and women wear aprons during a cooking class. Photo: Shutterstock

Going back to my apron gift analogy, it only becomes a sexist piece of clothing or a symbol of submission if it is intended just for women. If you look at any cooking show, most of the time you see people on these programmes wear an apron and very often they are men.

It is all about getting rid of labels. With that in mind, had those HSBC discount deals not been segregated into men’s and women’s categories, they would not have stirred such a controversy.

Being gender neutral or gender respectful, as I would call it, helps us to be more relaxed and understanding about gender boundaries to a point that we are open-minded enough to accept a blur of the sexes, as we adapt to evolving attitudes towards sexuality and genders in today’s ever-changing culture.

The whole idea is about overhauling our mindset for the better. We should not label men as being masculine or women as a symbol of femininity. And only when we lose these outdated gender filters can we truly see and treat everybody as equal.

In a home setting, more often than not, women are still associated with domestic activities even when they have a full-time job, which is disconcerting, to say the least.

Young man and women shopping together. Luisa Tam says Hong Kong needs to address the gender pay gap. Photo: Alamy

In Hong Kong, there is still a misconception that the salary of a married woman or a working mother does not matter that much because their incomes are just “pocket money” for themselves. In other words, women are assumed to still rely on their husbands to be the breadwinner.

The issue we need to address is not about who wears the trousers, but the gender pay gap.

Apparently, Hong Kong is one of the worst culprits when it comes to gender pay difference.

According to the latest report by Prospect and PublicAffairsAsia, entry level staff aged 20 to 24 in the communications and corporate affairs sector earn roughly the same, regardless of gender, at about US$30,000 per year. But by the ages of 25 to 34, men begin to out-earn women by 8.3 per cent on average, and the salary gap widens further as ages increase.

Mother and kids having fun in living room. Luisa Tam says domestic stereotypes are just one gender issue that needs addressing in Hong Kong. Photo: Alamy

Any form of gender inequality, casual or overt, should not be tolerated or allowed to pervade our daily lives. We should not brush it off as someone being oversensitive, or that their issue is exclusive to them. Sometimes it could be as subtle as a gift or a casual comment. We should not condition ourselves to ignore or accept it and let it become toxic and spread.

Ignoring or brushing them off does not make them less toxic or disappear, it will only allow them to take root. In this day and age, we should be charging ahead unrelentingly to build value systems that empower gender equality, support gender fairness and equal opportunities for all.

Luisa Tam is a senior editor at the Post

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Time to consign gender inequality to history

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