China issues white paper on gender equality, women's development

China issued Tuesday a white paper on gender equality and women's development, providing a comprehensive overview of the country's women policies as well as unremitting efforts made and measures implemented in this regard.

Gender equality and women's development in China not only show the country's own progress, but also constitute a historical contribution made to global equality, development and peace. And Chinafully protects the economic interests of women, promoting women's equal participation in economic development and equal access to the fruits of reform and development, said the white paper.

China has always upheld the constitutional principle of equality between men and women, which is also a basic state policy for promoting progress in the country and in society, while significant progress has been made in alleviating poverty among women,said the white paper marking the 20th anniversary of the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women that was held in Beijing.

Chinese women make up one fifth of the world's total female population. Over the years China has progressively improved its laws and regulations, developed public policies, worked out development plans and pressed forward steadily with gender equality and women's development, it said.

Over the past two decades, China's national mechanism for promoting the status of women has been constantly improved to allow it to play an increasingly prominent role, it said, adding by fully utilizing government resources and effectively mobilizing social resources, the mechanism lays an important foundation for promoting gender equality and women's development.

The state has kept improving government organs for promoting the status of women, said the white paper, citing the National Working Committee on Children and Women (NWCCW) established in 1990 to organize, coordinate, guide, supervise and urge departments concerned in promoting gender equality and women's development. Composed of leading ministerial-level members from relevant government organs, the Committee is chaired by a member of the State Council leadership.

Moreover, women's development was included in China's 10th, 11th and 12th five-year plans for economic and social development, "each time with greater emphasis, clearer goals, and more effective measures for promoting coordinated development between Chinese women and China's economy and society," it said.

The white paper said guidance has been given to local governments in actively exploring the establishment of an assessment system of laws and policies related to gender equality, so as to provide at the source a solid institutional guarantee for promoting gender equality and women's development.

In 1990, 2000 and 2010, China carried out three surveys, which fully and objectively reflected the conditions and changes in Chinese women's social status, providing valuable reference for the government to formulate policies and measures to promote women's development and gender equality.

During the implementation of comprehensive poverty reduction strategies, China has given overall consideration to the impact of urbanization, aging, climate change and other social and market factors on poverty among women, and strengthened efforts to address such poverty, it said.

China has implemented a program for poverty alleviation through development in rural areas, making women a key focus of attention and giving priority to poverty alleviation projects for women when all other conditions are equal, striving to improve the development capacity of women and bringing more benefits to them as a group, said the paper.

The number of impoverished women has dropped by an enormous margin, and the severity of poverty of women has been continuously alleviated, it said, adding in nearly 600 poorest counties which are made the main targets of national poverty alleviation and development work, the poverty rate of the female population decreased from 20.3 percent in 2005 to 9.8 percent in 2010.

China has established a new-model social relief system, increasing efforts to protect impoverished women. In 2014, the numbers of women covered by subsistence allowances for urban and rural residents were 7.92 million and 18.26 million respectively, increasing by 2 million and 15.91 million, as compared to 2006, according to the paper.

The state has actively implemented a number of public welfare and charity programs for impoverished mothers, such as the program of relief for mothers suffering from breast cancer and cervical cancer, the comfortable housing project for impoverished rural single mothers, and the mother health express program, bringing help to sick women, poor single mothers and various other groups of mothers in need, the paper said.

To create favorable conditions for women's employment and career development, China has also implemented policies that enable women in positions as middle-ranking officials, senior professionals and technicians at state organs and public institutions to retire at the same age as their male counterparts, and policies to facilitate the growth of female scientists and promote equal employment opportunities for female college graduates, it said.

China improves the level of social security for women, including maternity, old-age, medical, unemployment and industrial injury insurances, according to the paper.