Recently, more than 20 provinces have launched the revision of local population and family planning regulations and launched a series of measures to encourage fertility. Many areas have further extended maternity leave and added parental leave. Many people applaud the "overweight" of maternity benefits, but some women worry that they will face greater job pressure and unemployment risk. Will extending maternity leave aggravate employment discrimination? Whether from the perspective of women or from the response of employers, extending maternity leave may exacerbate employment discrimination. The 2021 survey report on the current situation of Chinese women's workplace confirms such concerns: nearly 60% of women are asked about their marital and reproductive status during job hunting. Because the extension of maternity leave increases the unit cost of employers. On the one hand, although the social security institution will issue maternity allowance to the employer to pay the employee's holiday salary, if the amount of allowance is lower than the employee's original salary standard, the employer needs to make up the difference. In addition, most provinces require enterprises to bear the maternity leave allowance funds, and the enterprise psychology can be imagined. On the other hand, employers, especially enterprises, have a lot of difficulties in employment. When women take extended maternity leave, they need others to "work on their behalf", and the enterprise has to pay overtime or hire another employee. The increase of employment cost will cause the enterprise to discriminate against women. Although more extension of maternity leave is conducive to the implementation of the three child policy, the restoration of women's health, breastfeeding, etc., it will also produce some side effects, which is easy to cause difficulties in women's employment and promotion, and the legitimate rights and interests will be damaged. If gender discrimination in the workplace cannot be effectively solved, women's fertility will be affected, and then the implementation effect of the three child policy will be eliminated. However, to answer the above question from another perspective - that is, supporting the "combination fist" for extending maternity leave will not aggravate employment discrimination. For example, if stricter measures are taken at the legislative level to combat gender discrimination, employers dare not, cannot and do not want to discriminate against women, they can safeguard women's legitimate rights and interests. The law on the protection of women's rights and interests (Revised Draft) submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation not long ago makes it clear that, unless otherwise stipulated by the state, employers shall not limit men or give priority to men, investigate the marriage and childbearing situation and wishes of female job seekers, and take restrictions on marriage and childbirth as employment conditions. This is a major arrangement for legislation against gender discrimination. Although legislation is the basis of anti gender discrimination, legislative progress alone is not enough. We should also support the corresponding supervision system and law enforcement system for the aggravated employment discrimination in the third child. Trade unions and women's federations at all levels should take supervising employers' implementation of laws and regulations as an important task. Anti gender discrimination law enforcement should also be included in the scope of political performance assessment. For another example, reasonably adjust and share relevant costs. The state, employers and female employees share the cost together to avoid employment discrimination caused by employers bearing the cost alone. So far, many local legislations have extended maternity leave and significantly increased the number of statutory leave days, but there are no supporting measures to share the resulting increased costs. This will inevitably affect the employment rights and interests of women and the implementation effect of the three child policy. We hope to introduce relevant policies as soon as possible to implement precise tax reduction or reward and subsidy measures for employers, especially enterprises. In addition, women in the workplace should be encouraged to actively protect their rights in accordance with the law. It is obvious that women have the most say in whether women are discriminated against, which requires working women to be good at obtaining evidence and safeguarding their rights. From law enforcement departments to judicial organs to public opinion supervision, we should also support women's rights protection, and finally form a co governance situation against gender discrimination. As an employer, anti gender discrimination should be regarded as an important embodiment of fulfilling social responsibility. It is advisable to formulate red and black lists for employers that treat women well and employers that discriminate against women, and then implement joint rewards or joint punishment. (Xinhua News Agency)