Chinese women, once afraid of losing their jobs if they became pregnant, are demanding their legitimate rights.

Though Chinese law states that no woman worker may be laid off because of marriage, pregnancy or maternity leave, Zhang Zheng, an intercessor with the labor dispute arbitrage service in the Xicheng district of Beijing, said,the enforcement of this law is not satisfactory.

Zhang said that the arbitration service last year received 80 cases involving violation of women workers' rights in their special physiological periods, and the number of such cases is rising.

A survey conducted by the Beijing municipal labor authorities shows that some 10 percent of employers do not respect the labor rights of women when signing work contracts.

The survey also shows that women workers on maternity leave are paid less than usual.

Though it is regulated that the cost of childbirth by women working in state-owned enterprises should be covered by the enterprises, women in some enterprises are denied their rights, according to the survey.

Statistics show that 330 million women worked in various professions in 2000, accounting for about 46 percent of the whole workforce of the country.

"As more and more Chinese women choose to be career women instead of professional housewives, they have been facing a common problem -- how to balance a sweet dream to be a mother and career ambitions," said Li Lihua, an official with the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), China's largest women's organization.

Li said that letters asking for help with labor rights protection accounted for 17 percent of the complaint letters that the ACWF received last year -- as many as those about marriage and family problems.

Li Jing, an official with the Beijing municipal women's federation, said the main cause of the increasing disputes is that in recent years more and more women have been employed by private enterprises, which ignore the rights of women in their special physiological periods, including menses, pregnancy and lactation.

The existing Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women came into effect in 1992.

"It is in great need of being renewed, as it can not meet the needs of the present rapid social development," said Zhang Zheng.

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