A female worker carries electronic parts at a company in Huaying, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Photo: IC

China is moving to fight gender discrimination against female job seekers, including banning employers from refusing to hire women and asking female applicants about their marital and childbirth status.A notice jointly issued by nine departments on Thursday including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Ministry of Education listed measures for implementing existing rules and laws that ban gender discrimination in employment.Employers and human resources service agencies shall not include a requirement on gender or gender priority in their recruitment plans or recruitment advertisement, according to the notice.The notice bans employers from refusing to hire women, asking women about marriage and childbirth conditions, organizing pregnancy tests for new female staff, and setting birth restrictions as a condition of employment.Employers that are suspected of gender discrimination in employment will be summoned, and those refusing to attend or fail to correct their misconducts after a summons will be held accountable and exposed to the public, according to the notice.The people's courts should accept lawsuits relating to gender discrimination against women in employment, and judicial departments should provide judicial and legal aid to eligible women.The notice encourages employers to carry out skills training for female employees returning to posts after birth.The notice stresses the importance of promoting the development of infant and child care services, strengthening after-school services in primary and middle schools to help women balance work and family. It also requires punishing violations of labor protection rights and interests of female employees during pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation.Li Yinhe, a renowned Chinese sexologist and sociologist, commented on her Sina Weibo account on Friday that the notice showed that the cause of equality between men and women has moved forward a small step.On Sina Weibo, the related topic has been viewed by 260 million times and generated over 47,000 discussions by press time, with many netizens saying the notice came "just in time" and should be strictly followed, although some also doubted whether it could be fully implemented.