The document reviews the progress and challenges of gender equality in China, detailing historical policies, health and educational advancements, economic participation, and political involvement since 1949. Despite significant strides, gaps remain, including gender discrimination in the labor market and an imbalanced sex ratio at birth, which reflect broader societal issues. Recommendations for future strategies include enhancing women’s roles in decision-making and addressing demographic changes impacting gender equality.

1. Gender equality in China: progress,
challenges, and future strategy
Zheng, Zhenzhen
Institute of Population and Labor Economics
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
2 March 2014 Mpumalanga, South Africa

2. Outline
• Promoting gender equality in China: a review
• Progress and current status
– Efforts for a supportive policy and social environment
– Health
– Education
– Economic participation
– Political participation
• Gaps and challenges
• National strategies

3. Promoting gender equality in China: a review
• 1949-1956: Social movement with laws clearly define
women’s equal rights
– The establish of All China Women’s Federation
– The constitution, marriage law, labor protection law
– Efforts to reduce maternal and infant death
• 1957-1965: promoting women’s economic participation
• 1966-1976:
• 1977-1990: women’s role in reform and opening-up
• 1990- 2000: more policies issued and more actions taken
– 1992: Law on the protection of rights and interests of women
– 1993: National Working Committee on Children and Women
under the State Council
– 1995: the first Program for the Development of Chinese Women
(1995-2000)

4. Important progress in the 21st century
• Gender equality as a key national policy of social
development, development of supportive policies
– Amendment of Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of
Women: emphasized anti-gender discrimination and legal
responsibility
– Emphasize women’s rights protection and gender equity in related
laws and regulations
– Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2001-2010)
and (2011-2020), monitor and evaluation
• Strengthen national system to promote gender equality in
all levels and all sectors
– The coordination ministries/departments of NWCCW expended
from 17 to 33
– Every province, city, and county has a coordinated work
committee

5. Important progress in the 21st century
• Gender mainstreaming and gender equality advocacy for a
more supportive social-cultural environment
– High rank advocacy
– Collaborating with media, more news and reports to advocate
– The role of CSOs: monitor media on stereotype or discriminative
reports about women, analysis and intervention
– More international collaboration, communication and exchange
• Key projects
– Fight against gender-based violence: change common views from
ignorance to pay attention, gender sensitive and anti gender-based
domestic violence training in legal system and health system,
preparation for development of law
– “Care for girls” Campaign: promote non-discriminating concepts to
change the traditional views of weighting more on boys than girls,
call for awareness on harmful practices that discriminate girls, and
raising girls’ status in a family

6. Health: progress and current status
Life expectancy
at birth
Source: census data
69.3
70.5
73.3
75.3
77.4
65
70
75
80
1981 1990 2000 2005 2010
Year
Lifeexpectancyatbirth
Total Men Women
Health insurance
coverage (%)
Source: The report of
the Third Wave
Survey on the Social
Status of Women in
China, 2010
88.0
87.6
95.6
95.0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Men,urban
Women,urban
Men,rural
Women,rural

7. 50
100
150
200
250
300
350
15 20 25 30 35 40 45
High school
College
University
Post-graduate
Education: progress and current status
• Special efforts to keep girls in school
• Average years of schooling in 2010: women 8.4, men 9.2
• To reach the MDG goal of “eliminating gender disparities
at all levels of education”: sex ratio by education, 2010 census

8. Labor participation: progress and current status
• Women make 46% of employed labor
• More women work in education, culture, health, sports,
commercial and retail, and service
• An increasing number of women work in new
emerging and high-tech industry
• Training for women provided by government and
women’s organizations
• Improvement in occupational protection for women
– A high coverage of maternal insurance for urban employees,
from 26% in 2000 to 95% in 2010
– More enterprises implemented “Regulation on Occupational
Protection of Women Employees”, from 34.9% in 2005 to
54.9% in 2010

9. Current status: findings from the Third Wave
Survey on the Social Status of Women (2010)
• Labor participation: 71.1% women aged 18-64
• Distribution by industry: 45.3% primary, 14.5% secondary,
40.2% tertiary
• Average annual income to that of men: 67.3% in urban,
56.0% in rural
• 9.0% women and 14.0% men received loans for
production and business; among them 37.3% women and
36.9% men receiving small loans including government-
subsidized interest payments

10. More social interventions
• Poverty alleviation with special target in less developed
rural areas on
– Mothers of poor families (Happiness Project);
– Families only have daughters;
– Girls drop out from school (Spring Bud Project);
– Families with family member has health problems;
– Families in difficult natural settings or suffered from natural
disasters.
• Activities also carried out by non-governmental
organizations (such as family planning associations,
women’s organizations, and others)
• Migration from rural to urban: a way to poverty alleviation
and human capital building

11. Political participation
• Women representatives in National People’s Congress
(2013): 23.4%
• Women in community leadership (2010): 49.6% in urban,
21.4% in rural (a significant increase than a decade earlier)
Findings from the Survey on the Social Status of Women
(2010)
• 54.1% have been involved in democratic supervision
• 18.3% take the initiative to raise suggestions in work place
or in communities
• Over the last five years, 83.6% rural women have
participated in village committee elections, and
– 70.4% reported that they taken the elections seriously and “tried
their best to know the candidates well before voting”

12. Gaps and challenges
• Imbalanced sex ratio at birth: a consequence of boy preference
as fertility declines, reflecting gender in-equality and discrimination
against women and girls in a society in variety of forms
• From view of human resource to evaluate women’s role
– There are still some gender discrimination in labor market
– Women’s income is lower
– The official retire age of women staff is 5 years earlier
– The proportion of women in decision making and management is
still low, and more men in leading position in higher rank
– Promotion of men is faster than women
• Consequences of fast demographic change
– The fast changes in population and family structure
– The challenge in balancing work and life for working women
– The traditional gender role: 61.6% men and 54.8% women agreed
that “men are better at social issues and women are better at
family issues” ( 2010 survey)

13. • Further gender mainstreaming in all areas; more resource
investment; improve gendered statistics, analysis, and
evaluation
• Eliminate gender in-equality, to address the root causes of
sex ratio imbalance problem, to improve the supportive
social and policy environment for development of women
and girls
• To promote women’s participation in decision making and
promote in high-rank position by more training and
improved policy
• Pay attention to possible consequences of demographic
change to women, be aware potential gender inequality
while response to demographic changes
National strategies for the next decade

14. Implementation, Monitor and evaluation on the major
indicators and strategies on women in
• Health
• Education
• Economy
• Decision making and management
• Social welfare
• Environment
• Legal protection
The Program for the Development of
Chinese Women (2011-2020)

15. Thank you