By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-06 07:43

"Women hold up half of the sky" - it is a Chairman Mao saying that recently released figures seem to reaffirm, shedding light on the gender issues facing the country.

Chinese women take up 45.4 percent of the country's workforce, the book Facts and Figures on Women and Men in China published by the National Bureau of Statistics bureau showed.

And about 64 percent of 347 million working women are in the agricultural industry, which is about 10 percent higher than that of men in the sector.

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At the same time, the number of women involved in the secondary and service industries are 6.8 percent and 3.3 percent lower, respectively, than the number of men, the figures showed.

The latest figures of women's part in the workforce come amid ongoing discussion by members of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, on whether women civil servants should retire at 55 - five years earlier than their male counterparts - and face losing out in benefits, as highlighted by Zhang Yongying, an expert under the Women's Studies Institute of China.

"More women civil servants have doctorates or masters degrees. This means they spend a longer time on education. That in turn means a shorter working life," she said.

On the other hand, even those women who start work at the same age as their male counterparts get less pension, because they have to retire at a younger age", she added.

"Women without higher education and technical skills working in factories might prefer to retire as early as 55 years old, as they are afraid of being laid off and losing their pension at this age," Zhang said.

Statistics from the bureau's book show that female workers in the country between 40-50 years old are in this group, in danger of losing their jobs.

The numbers are only part of the book, bureau officials reiterated.

"It does not only target women's issues, but also collects comprehensive data of both genders in relation to social integrity," said the book's editor, Wang Kejun, who is the director of the bureau's social, science and technology statistics department.

"Gender equality is a human rights issue that is necessary for achieving sustainable and people-centered development."

"The book summarizes all related data, and provides an overview of China's development of gender research," Wang said.

The bureau had published three such books dealing with similar issues and data in 1999, 2004 and last year.

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