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A Day In the Life of A
Professional Chinese Woman
The Work Day - Part II of III By Sheryl HallPictures of China: Exercising / Alley View / Biking / Carrying a Heavy Load / Street Market A typical work day in China begins at 8:00a.m. From what I learned, there are strict regulations about timely and prompt arrivals to the workplace. In one of my meetings with two young government employees, Jiang Qi and Jacqueline Zhang from the China Economic Information Network (CEInet) in Beijing, this was confirmed. They shared that if they are just minutes late, the time lost will be deducted from their paychecks. CEInet is a state information center which among other things, provides Intranet and Internet access to other cities and provinces within China. This meeting with CEInet employees was a very interesting meeting. I was fortunate to meet with two women. Jacqueline is around age 28 years old and is married with a three-year old girl. The other woman, Jiang Qi, is around 30 years of age. At this time in her life, she is more interested in a career, instead of having a family life right now. Both are educated young women. Jacqueline has her Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and at this time, is satisfied. Jiang Qi has earned her Masters degree in Science Engineering and is anxious to further progress in her career. They both commented that it was slow for them to move up and become managers. However, Jiang also stated that if a woman was interested, motivated, and has the abilities, anything is possible. Both of these women are also managers, managing three employees each. Jacqueline is responsible for 13 Cisco routers that connect to various provinces. Several provinces and cities within China make up the CEInet wide area network (WAN). Jiang Qi’s responsibilities include managing the administration of the UNIX networks. When I asked about specific duties and tasks, Jacqueline shared that they typically do not purchase maintenance contracts or service from vendors such as Sun or Cisco. Instead, they depend on their system integrators to manage product upgrades, software enhancements, flash bios/memory upgrades and strategic planning. It was clear that their authority ended as the front-line technician charged with calling the system integrator. It was fascinating to learn that the people in general, have very limited duties or tasks they are responsible for. They are divided among others. My belief, is that this is in order to accommodate employing more individuals and maintaining more control. The majority of factory workers I observed were female. They often arrived at work carrying jars of their special tea and a bit of a lunch. Lunch might consist of rice and/or noodles with broth and a roll. For break, they might be offered the opportunity to eat fresh, cooked dumplings or pot-stickers. In many working environments, the employees break for lunch around 12 noon and do not have to report back until 2:30p.m. This gives them the time to eat lunch and rest. In order to earn a position within a university or within government institutes, graduate degrees and often post-graduate level degrees are necessary. Many of the women we met had Master level degrees and some Ph.D. levels as well. The youngest woman we met with a Ph.D., was 23 years old. It still appears that they begin at a young age and study hard. Similar to the United States, fewer young women are enrolling in Science and Technology courses in the 1990’s. When asked why, the answer was because they didn’t want to have to work as hard as their parents. According to one of our guides, China recently changed from a six-day work week to a five-day work week. When asked about holidays and vacation time, it was shared that in China, employees really don’t receive many days off. It was interesting because weekend days off were considered as “holiday” time. Their actual holidays are very few and vacation time is limited as well. This is because, I was told, they have no place to go. Lack of money is another hindrance. They can not afford to travel to another city, in many cases. However, maternity and paternity leave was quite generous. And, often any time off is to care for the extended family. For the majority of employees, the day ends at 5:00p.m. and the commute home begins. Back home, they usually spend time with the children and work on school work. Dinner comes later. For evening entertainment, most families sit together and watch TV. More and more families are purchasing TV’s. Often, they are shared with others outside their home in their complex. The movie “Ghost” is a favorite with young women and Michael Jackson is their favorite singer. They love American movies and TV. The Titanic was a family favorite too! Overall, computer use is growing. However, it is still very slow to connect local area networks and wide area networks. Mostly this is because of the infrastructure and cost. In most offices, universities, and businesses, desktop computers are available. At home however, there are still very few at this time. Many people in the workplace, also have email accounts now although they are often group accounts. One must also assume that ALL email exchanges will be read, especially something that is sent out of the country. Many women own Cell phones. In fact, they are very common throughout China. This is because it is very slow and much too costly to have a dedicated line into your apartment. This is very much like central and middle Europe and other populous places where communication lines are difficult to reach. I met a mix of young women that were more interested in having a family than in a career. This too, is really no different from here. In light of all the differences, when all is said and done, things often seem to be more similar than different! Stay-tuned for Part III - The All China's Women's Federation (ACWF). | ||
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