'HeForShe' Campaign Kicks Off in Southwest China

 

A promotional event for a promoting gender equality with social responsibility, , was held in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, on April 14.

Chinese actor Tong Dawei was invited to the event, together with Country Project Manager of UN Women Julia Broussard and Virginia Tan, founder of Lean In China, along with other representatives from all walks of life, who are concerned about .

At the forum, Tong gave a keynote speech, arguing that women were solid partners for men, and men were women's best allies. He also advocated for the elimination of gender prejudice. At the same time, he urged companies to make changes and pay attention to women in the workplace to jointly advance gender equality.

As a national goodwill ambassador for UN Women, Tong has been actively participating in HeForShe's various charity actions and is dedicated to promoting gender equality.

At the event, Tong shared his experiences since joining the project in 2015 and noted that traditional thinking had a very clear gender distinction for the definition of success. Men's success was usually considered to be having power, money, and status, whilst women's often referred to the balance between family and business. Their pursuit of career and success was easily ignored.

He took himself and his wife, Guan Yue, as an example to emphasize that, "the role of men and women in family and society is equally important. We should pay more attention to the achievements of women in their careers than in their families. We should all devote more time and effort to the family." When talking about his relationship with his wife, Tong said, "I support my wife to achieve her goals, and she is also very supportive of me."

In the speech, Tong used his company as an example to further oppose gender bias. He said that 80 percent of the company's employees are women, all of whom are industry representatives. Meanwhile, he pointed out that although men valued family as much as women, what they put in was far less than that of women. One of the objective reasons is that companies and society had not paid enough attention to the issue.

Tong proposed that women and men should possess the same rights in choosing careers, and men are urged to participate more in family life, so that women can fully concentrate on their careers.

At the end of the speech, Tong stated that as a part of film and television industry and founder of the company, he would set an example and introduce more elements of women's empowerment into his work.

At the same time, he called on companies and society to pay attention to men and women's needs in the workplace, creating a female-friendly office environment. In addition, equal pay must be ensured, to guarantee policies and norms were not established on the basis of gender, so that men and women employees could be treated equally.

 

 

(Source: Xinhua/Translated and edited by )