Leading Chinese tech firms have been accused of discrimination with respect to hiring women after a series of sexist job ads reached the public attention, Bloomberg reports.
Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent are among the firms identified in a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch as using female employees to lure men to apply for jobs at their companies, whilst also listing a range of physical requirements for potential female applicants, such as height, appearance and personality type.
In response to the report and social media fallout, several of the big-name companies have apologised and repented for their hiring campaigns. Tencent said in a statement, “we have investigated these incidents and are making immediate changes. We are sorry they occurred and we will take swift action to ensure they do not happen again.”
The Human Rights Watch report also looked at job advertisements in fields such as construction, education, and public services, finding examples of discrimination in each. In the civil service, for instance, it was found that 19% of job ads this year said “men only” or men were preferred.
