Sexist adverts and fear of maternity leave: how gender inequality in China’s job market is ‘getting worse’

When Erica Shu, a University of Hong Kong final year student, arrived for her internship at a Shanghai brokerage last year, she was shocked to find just one woman aged under 30 among the 30 people working in the investment department.

She said other employees later told her that the department had stopped hiring women two years earlier because female candidates had “low value” in the finance industry.