A small protest was staged in Wuhan, Hubei Province on 27 November against the federal government’s screening process for female applicants.  The protestors claim that applying for a civil servant’s position requires women to reveal personal information about the menstrual cycle.

When hiring the national government asks female applicants about their menstruation history.  Questions such as “When did you have your first period?” and “Do you experience abdominal pain during menstruation?” are standard items on the civil service examination.

Furthermore, the exam contains a pap smear test (taking samples from deep inside the woman’s vagina) in addition to your standard physical exam.

Some experts are agreeing that this line of questioning and examination is “suspiciously discrimination.” Although men also receive genital examinations they are not at the same level of invasiveness as the women.

The last examination held on 26 November angered a group of college students enough to trigger a sudden demonstration in front of the ministry building in Wuhan city.

Around a dozen women and apparently one guy in a purple mask gathered with signs adorned with red colored maxi pads reading “What’s does menstruation have to do with civil service?” and “I don’t need a gynecological exam to be a public servant!”

The women chanted and did dance numbers while wearing oversized paper underwear with the Chinese character for “examine” with a red line through it. The male protestor was a terrible dancer.

Despite the small size of the protest it drew up relatively massive discussion on China’s microblogging site Sina Weibo which blossomed further into international media coverage.

In a show of solidarity with these students RocketNews24 management has decided to give daily mandatory proctoscopies to all male staff until the Chinese government changes their policy.  Now, if you excuse me I have to go to the bathroom for the eleventh time today.

Source: Legal Daily (Chinese), Yahoo News (Japanese)
Images: Sina Weibo

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