( CNN ) A ballerina dancing in a music box and a girl sat in an armchair drinking tea surrounded by flowers . This is how two of China 's most popular websites chose to celebrate International Women 's Day Sunday , unleashing a storm of criticism , especially on social media , which ridiculed their home page `` doodles '' as sexist stereotypes . `` May the world treat you gently , '' the video-sharing site Youku told its female users . Search engine Baidu had no explicit message for its visitors , but the rotating ballerina turned into a bride and then a mom with a stroller . Internet users were quick to point out how the efforts of Baidu , China 's biggest search engine , and Youku , dubbed China 's YouTube , contrasted with global rival Google . Its doodle depicted women in several different professions , including a scientist , artist , astronaut , chef , musician , teacher and volleyball player . `` This is how you define women and celebrate them ! '' said Weibo user @ Zoexiaoyizi of Baidu 's music box . `` Google 's doodle just makes their stupidity even worse . '' Guo Weiqing , a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou , said that the companies ' choice of imagery suggested that women are there only to be taken care of and look pretty -- and the real world of business should be left to men . `` Internet companies conveying such a narrow definition of women is n't good . It 's exactly the opposite of the International Women 's Day mission , which is fighting for gender equality , '' he told CNN . Baidu and Youku did n't immediately respond to calls for comment . The doodle uproar came as Chinese authorities detained several women right 's activists this weekend . Some of them had planned to hold a nationwide protest against sexual harassment . On Monday , five were still being held police , said an activist and a friend of the women , who asked not to be identified . Beijing traditionally cracks down on activists during important meetings like this week 's National People 's Congress ( NPC ) . `` In other countries , doing such things on International Women 's Day is natural , while in China you get detained for fighting for women 's rights , '' she said . `` Everything we 've done is mild and done legally -- we call for gender equality in the college entrance exam and more toilet spots for women , '' she added . Under Chairman Mao Zedong , women famously `` held up half the sky '' but there is a growing sense that Chinese women today face more , not less , discrimination than in the past . The New York Times reported last month that women make up fewer than one in 10 board members at the country 's top 300 companies . And China 's state-run media often appears more concerned with women 's looks and marital status than equal rights . Showing the same tin ear as Baidu and Youku , the People 's Daily , the Communist Party 's official newspaper , published an online gallery entitled `` Beauty with brains . '' It featured 18 snapshots of female journalists covering the NPC in Beijing this week . And during the Lunar New Year holidays last month , a television gala watched by 690 million people included comedy skits mocking overweight and unmarried women . Incensed feminists called for an end to the annual televised extravaganza in an online petition . Just weeks earlier , Zhou Guoping , an influential writer , enraged many when he said that `` a man can have thousands of ambitions but a woman only one '' -- to give birth . Guo , the professor , said that more and more women are n't happy with the gender roles Chinese society ascribes to them , and this year 's string of `` sexist incidents '' reflects men 's concerns that women are n't as `` feminine '' as they once were . `` They hope women will return to the way they 're supposed to be . '' CNN Intern Harvard Zhang contributed to this report .
Baidu doodles stir controversy in China . International Women 's Day and Youku depict women as girls , brides and mothers . Feminist activists held by police over the weekend .