To get a job, married Chinese women pose as ‘singles’

When Fiona Liu, 32, appeared for a job interview in Shenzhen last month, a disquieting portion of the interaction with her potential employers revolved around her private life — and rather less on her qualification. “The job was for an event management firm, and would have required me to work late evenings,” Liu recalls. “The company officials felt that since I was newly married, I won’t be able or willing to work late, and eventually turned me away.”

Wiser from the experience, she’s resolved to lie and claim at her next interview that she’s single — just to land a job in these difficult times. Liu isn’t alone in her predicament.
Across China, instances of married women posing as single women are on the rise, typically among those in the 25-to-35 age group, owing to fear of job discrimination against married women and other social pressures.

In particular, women in the hospitality and services industries opt for ‘false single’ status, keeping their marriages a secret even from their colleagues and friends.

“Unreasonable and illegal job practices that discriminate against married candidates are contributing to an increase in such ‘hidden marriages’,” says Wang Zhenyu, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese Marriage and Family Research Society. In other cases, he claims, women who face marital problems keep their private lives a secret from others.

A media survey conducted established that ‘false singles’ typically tended to hide their marital status for two reasons: “to retain/get jobs” and “to not be excluded from workplace social activities.”

Sociologists are concerned that posing as a ‘false single’ is a dicey proposition that can come back to hurt married women. But at a time when employment is hard to find, more than a few married women believe that an acknowledgement of their marriage is one ‘qualification’ they would rather not have on their resume.