When recruiters said they could not hire her because they needed a man, Cao Ju…got a lawyer. Now the company has settled…for 30,000 yuan (£2,985), in what is believed to be China's first gender discrimination lawsuit…[T]he…Juren Academy – a private tutoring firm – specified that it wanted a man for the post of executive assistant and rejected her because she was a woman...It said a man was needed as the work would include physical tasks such as changing the bottle on a water dispenser…Operators at the Juren Academy refused to transfer the Guardian's calls, but its CEO has described the payment…as a special fund for caring for women's equal employment, rather than compensation. He told Chinese media his school had never discriminated against women and employed mostly female staff…Rights advocates say significant progress will require new sex discrimination legislation...