Rising female fortunes

MANAGEMENT:As part of China's rapidly growing economy, more women are finding their way into the business world

China is one of the world's great economic growth stories, and central to that success has been the work of Chinese women, who "hold up half the sky", according to Chairman Mao Zedong. But how much of that admirable dictum applies to foreign women doing business in China?

The answer which comes across from talking to women working in China or writing about this topic is that pragmatism plays a strong role in granting women an equal role to men in business negotiations, despite occasional, initial reservations.

There is an image of Chinese business deals being done over smokey banquet tables, with the fiery maotai liquor flowing and with women present only to serve the food or lead the karaoke. While this is certainly a common phenomenon, Chinese candour - when it comes to making deals - can work in a western woman's favour. Or at least not to her disadvantage.

"Despite people's perception of sexism being inherent in Chinese society, men and women now receive equal education and consequently, opportunities. In my experience, most Chinese companies have women in senior management roles and this figure is rising steadily," says Rebecca Hegarty, chief operations officer for sales at the Saon Group in Beijing.

"Compared to a couple of decades ago, women are now presented with the same career opportunities as men, this is positively encouraged in the workplace. Unfortunately other developing markets, like India, are going to take longer to reach this level of equality, where an overwhelming number of management roles are held by men," she says.

Li Chow, the Colombian-born representative of Sony Pictures in China, believes women have an advantage in negotiation. "I find that faced with an impasse, Chinese men tend to get into an argument easily, over silly things that if you give it a second thought, you may be able to find a solution. With women, it is more difficult for Chinese men to get all worked up, provided the woman keeps her cool. One of the challenges as a woman is to keep that cool," she says.

Women have made great advances since 1949, even if there is still much evidence of the patriarchy to be found. Women from China make up one eighth of the world's population, are more than half of the country's rural poor, and the communist government stresses that women have an equal role, but society is traditionally male-dominated.

In ancient China women were routinely discriminated against, denied education and had no say about whom they married. Under the communists, the binding of feet has been outlawed, women tend to do most of the same jobs as men and are equal in the eyes of the law.

However, women still have it tough in China, particularly in the countryside. Suicide among women is extremely high, around 25 per cent higher among women than men. The government acknowledges the gender imbalance and has issued a white paper on gender inequality.

Tracy Wilen-Daugenti, author of China for Businesswomen believes women face the same basic problem when approaching China as a place to do business: the language - if not a native speaker.

The traditional image that China is somehow trailing the West in how it treats businesswomen is not always accurate and she warns against complacency.

"I recall a woman executive from China who came to the US and she expressed to me how shocked she was because there were so few women in executive positions there. She had thought and hoped that she would have more women business associates.

"I know other women working in China who say that as China adopts more western ways it works negatively for women in business and their personal careers," says Wilen-Daugenti, whose family comes from Killaloe, Co Clare.

Rebecca Hegarty says local women still face a challenge in achieving a satisfactory work-life balance. "Women still retain the title of 'chief homemaker' here in China so regardless of work pressures or of what level they have reached in their career, tradition dictates that they are solely responsible for looking after domestic issues," she says.

Being a woman has its advantages in doing business in China, particularly as building the business relationship is a key factor and women are often more adept at that than their male colleagues.

"Many cited that their personal ability to network with ease was an advantage with this culture and to have the ability to meet and get to know people at a variety of levels in the organisation. "Women noted that their male colleagues tended to try to focus on one decision maker thus jeopardising deals if they picked the wrong individual," says Wilen-Daugenti.

She goes on to say how understanding a new culture comes up often as the hardest challenge for any business person, and many note that it is much harder to understand the culture in China than in other countries in Asia. She also lists some of the familiar problems faced by foreign businesswomen in China.

"Others note that just understanding the bureaucracy is an issue and how decisions get done. Some say that negotiating is particularly tenuous as the style is so different than western style. And others even note that just adjusting to the environment is a challenge with so many people, pollution, different foods, etc," she says.

Li Chow, who experienced a lot of machismo growing up in Latin America, also finds evidence of it in China, but says it was different. "Back home, there is always a battle of wits between men and women and if the woman is intelligent enough, she would get respect. In China, even though they preach equality, men consider themselves superior and only respect women in higher positions." So, is it easier? "No, just different and because I am not a local Chinese, I do get a different treatment,"" said Li.

There is a long tradition of powerful women in Chinese history which has done much to help encourage greater equality, although the preference for boy children remains powerful in the countryside and many more boys are born than girls.

In 2006 China's richest billionaire was a woman, the self-made paper recycling tycoon Zhang Yin who founded Nine Dragons Paper and transformed it into one of China's top companies. The government is also trying to criminalise violence against women, but trafficking of women remains a problem. And there are still no women in the top-ranking Politburo.

All agree that there has never been a more exciting time to be a woman doing business in China. "Working in China at this stage of its development is exciting. It is immensely satisfying to be part of a fast-paced work-force that is shaping the country's development so rapidly and a work-force which sees women in management as in integral part of its future development," says Hegarty.