A tech company in China, Chain Fin, is searching for people who are attractive and have skills to charm programmers and give them relaxing massages. The company is looking to hire females for the position of Programmer Motivator. These women are required to be a part of cheerleader, part psychologist, who can chat and calm the stressed out programmers in the company.
IT jobs are increasing and so does the concept that male programmers are nerds who have no social life. Ms Shen, a worker in the company shared her reviews saying, “They really need someone to talk to them from time to time and to organize activities for them to ease some of the pressure.” The women in China have made huge progress in the workplace since the country has the largest number of self-made female billionaires and many start-ups as well.
China’s tech industry has produced a lot of companies which are rivals of Facebook, Google, and Amazon in power and wealth. However, in the tech industry, men are dominating the top ranks. For example, in the 11-member board of Alibaba, there is only one woman. At Baidu, a search company, and Tencent, a gaming and socializing company, there is no woman on the committee of board members. Comparing these numbers with American companies such as Twitter, there are three women on its nine-person board committee. At Facebook, there are two women among the nine directors.
According to Human Rights Watch, China’ tech companies are very blunt about the gender bias in their job ads. Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have published many recruitment ads boasting that there are ‘beautiful girls’ working for the companies. China’s tech industry is beginning to question such practices in the companies. They have also been very vocal about the objectification of women by start-ups.
While critics say that this will put a negative impact on the society if the tech world keeps posting ads like Chain-Fin posts. Many people responded to the critics where men said, “If there are more beautiful women, I’ll be happier in my job. What’s the issue?” and a woman posted, “As a woman, I don’t think this is a problem at all.”