Snapshot: In 2012, a female job applicant filed a civil lawsuit at the Haidian District Court in China against the Juren Academy, a tutoring school, alleging gender discrimination. The school denied gender discrimination but acknowledged it was a mistake to limit the recruitment to men. Juren agreed to settle the case, paying 30,000 yuan to a fund to support female equal employment opportunities and anti-gender discrimination and issued an apology to the applicant. 

巨人学校就业性别歧视案（中文版）

On 11 July 2012, a female job applicant named Cao Ju (pseudonym) filed a civil lawsuit at the Haidian District Court in China against the Juren Academy (Juren), a tutoring school, alleging gender discrimination.  This case is believed to be the first employment gender discrimination lawsuit in China.  Juren Academy denied gender discrimination but acknowledged that it was a mistake to limit the recruitment to men.

Cao applied for an administrative assistant position at Juren via an online recruitment.  She believed that she met all the requirements in the personal specification.  When she revisited the online recruitment after not getting a response to her application, she found that it now included a new “men only” requirement.  When Cao inquired about the position, Juren allegedly told her that it would consider only male candidates.  With the assistance of the anti-discrimination organization Yirenping, Cao filed a lawsuit before the Haidian District Court, seeking compensation of 50,000 yuan.  On the same day, Cao also submitted a complaint to the Haidian district branch of the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. 

The Haidian District Court did not respond to the filing of the civil suit within the prescribed time limit.  Subsequently, Cao submitted a complaint regarding the court’s failure to respond with five other bodies, between August and September 2012.   Cao eventually heard only from the Labour Inspectorate which, on 30 November 2012, dismissed the case.

On 29 January 2013, Cao filed an application for administrative review of the Labour Inspectorate’s decision with the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, but it upheld the Inspectorate’s decision on 28 March 2013.  On 12 April 2013, Cao launched an administrative lawsuit at the Haidian District Court, claiming that the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau had failed to fulfil its statutory duty.  In May 2013, the Haidian District Court accepted the administrative lawsuit but dismissed the case two months later.  Concurrently, on 26 May 2013, more than 100 female university students from across China signed a letter to the Committee for Internal Affairs, as well as the Judicial Committee of the Beijing People’s Congress and that of the Haidian District People’s Congress, calling for them to ensure the Beijing courts accepted Cao’s case.  On 10 September 2013, the Haidian District Court finally accepted the civil case against Juren.

During the hearing on 18 December 2013, the principal of Juren admitted that the academy had made a mistake in attempting to recruit only a male candidate for the administration assistant role, but stated that no gender discrimination was intended.  Juren submitted that, as 78% of the staff at the academy was female, it was in need of male employees to carry our more physically demanding tasks.  Juren agreed to settle the case by paying 30,000 yuan to Cao “as a special fund to support female equal employment opportunities and anti-gender discrimination” and by issuing an apology to her.

- “China: woman settles in first gender discrimination lawsuit”, Tania Branigan, Guardian (UK), 28 Jan 2014

- “Plaintiff obtains 30,000 yuan in China’s first gender discrimination lawsuit”, China Labour Bulletin, 9 Jan 2014

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- “Women protest company accused of discrimination”, Luo Wangshu, China Daily, 25 Jul 2012

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