Recent analysis of advertising in China, India, and Indonesia shows that 62 per cent of ads do not portray women in significant roles – other than demonstrating a product – and only two per cent put them in aspirational or leadership positions.

In Hong Kong, women who are 30 and unmarried are often referred to as sing nui in Cantonese, which means “leftover women”. But this derogatory label is not equally applied to single men. Men who have a successful career and choose to remain single are revered as jun sek wong lo ng, or “diamond bachelors”, regardless of their age. But for career women who voluntarily choose a single lifestyle because they don’t want to lower their standards to find a partner, their image is a far less positive one. They are labelled undesirable or discarded, and hence given the “leftover” label. This discriminatory attitude is ubiquitous – from the workplace to social circles.