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.
The gender gap in education has been markedly narrowed as China has implemented a special policy to ensure school-age girls enjoy equal access to compulsory education, a white paper said on Tuesday.
Hu Kaihong, said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing, and of the country adopting the basic state policy of gender equality.
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.
According to the white paper, principles and concepts of gender equality are gradually extending into teaching and scientific research. The Chinese and English versions have been published by the People’s Press and Foreign Languages Press respectively, and will be released in Xinhua bookstores nationwide.
While China has made modest gains with respect to women’s rights since 1995, it has not significantly reduced some of the most fundamental human rights abuses against women and girls, and in some respects has exacerbated them.
Please understand that womenofchina.cn, a non-profit, information-communication website, can not reach every writer before using articles and images.
To create favorable conditions for women’s employment and career development, China has also implemented policies to equalize the retirement age for female middle-ranking officials, senior professionals and technicians at state organs and public institutions.
On China’s initiative “to build a community of common destiny”, Mlambo-Ngcuka said all women and men want their rights to be respected, live in a world where they will be free of poverty and hunger and want to have a place in society.
As of 2010, China’s female life expectancy reaches 77.4, which demonstrates a 4.1 growth than year 2000.
A marked improvement has been seen in gender equality in marriages and families in China over the past 20 years, and it has become the norm for husbands and wives to make family decisions jointly, and that more than 70 percent of women have taken part in making major family decisions, said the white paper.
China has also encouraged judicial action against domestic violence at the grassroots level.