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

The data collection was carried out by the statistics bureau, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, Women's Studies Institute of China, and the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council.

The projects were initiated following the Beijing Platform for Action, which was put forth on the fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.

"The empowerment of women and gender equality are prerequisites for achieving political, social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all peoples," Wang said.

The book also touches on other social issues, ranging from family to broader aspects of social life.

Men in the community

Chinese men in urban areas showed increasing involvement in community management at the grassroots level, the bureau's latest publication showed.

Related readings:  Time to remedy costs of gender inequality  Gender inequality still rife  Reports on gender disparity in college denied  Why gender issues are causing science friction  Gender imbalance linked to serious social ills  85% Chinese concerned by gender imbalance - survey

"Though it indicates a corresponding decrease of women's involvement in the area, I believe it is a reasonable trend towards gender equality in social management in rural areas," said Zhang.

Neighborhood committees, with the help of local government, used to be responsible for residents in areas such as family planning, security and sanitation.

In the 1970s and 1980s, employees of these committees did not need be to highly educated as most of them were the elderly. Few young or middle-aged residents were involved.

Now, the workers of such committees are required to hold better educational qualifications and have a more sound understanding of government policies that affect their communities, officials said.

Staffers of the neighborhood committees are also reportedly being brought under national civil servant quotas, a move that is expected to attract more young and middle-aged workers.

The proportion of female staff in villagers' committees, however, is still much lower than those in urban areas, but has been steadily increasing in recent years, the bureau's publication reported.

Many provinces have also made steps to promote rural women's awareness of social management, since the Revision of Women Rights Guarantees Law was launched in 2005, Zhang said.

"For example, every village has to make sure there is at least one female member in their committees in Hunan and Hubei provinces," Zhang said.

"Men are still the main economic pillar in rural families, so their support is very important for women.

"More rural women being involved in social management at the grassroots level indicates men's increasing awareness of democracy," Zhang said.

Share of contraception

Statistics from the Facts and Figures on Women and Men in China also showed that men shared a small responsibility in preventing pregnancy.

Chinese men should be encouraged to use condoms, which means not only taking more responsibility for preventing pregnancies, but also helping to prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, said Jiang Xiuhua from the Women's Studies Institute of China.

She said that the government had launched various programs to encourage men to use condoms in some regions, and had seen a slight increase in men who choose to use the contraceptive.

For example, only 4 percent of men had reportedly chosen to use condoms in Deqing county, Zhejiang province, in the past. The proportion of such men has increased to 20 percent, after a joint campaign by the local government and the United Nations Population Fund to promote the practice was launched in 2004.

   1 2   

   1 2