(2) Women's rights

Women's right to participate on an equal footing with men in the management of state and social affairs is guaranteed. Women representatives account for 21.3 percent of all representatives in the 11th NPC, and female members account for 17.7 percent in the 11th CPPCC. The proportion of females in the leadership of governments at all levels is increasing, as is the level of participation of rural women in grassroots democratic management. In 2009 females made up 21.5 percent and 49.7 percent of the members of village committees and neighborhood committees, respectively, nationwide.

Women's right to employment and equal access to economic resources is guaranteed. By the end of October 2010 the state had provided 16.605 billion yuan in small loans to aid 410,500 women across the country to start businesses. Women's federations in all parts of the country created jobs for more than four million women by launching projects including processing with customers' materials and knitting. The SYB (Start Your Business) project provides training to 50,000 women every year. By September 2010 there were 1.589 million organizations for female employees in 77.61 percent of all the trade unions established in China. A total of 713,600 collective contracts for female employees were signed, covering 1.2439 million enterprises and public institutions, and 54.2446 million women workers.

The state brings population management, family planning and reproductive health into its national development strategy. Centers providing information, consultation and technical services for population management and family planning have been set up in all the counties and 95 percent of townships. High-quality services concerning reproductive health and family planning have been made available in over 80 percent of the counties. In 2010, 6.49 million and 870,000 rural women had tests for cervical cancer and breast cancer, respectively, 8.847 million pregnant rural women received hospital delivery subsidies, and the rate of women giving birth in hospitals reached 96.7 percent in the countryside. Over the past two years a total of 1.16 billion yuan has been allocated from the central budget to support the construction of family planning centers in counties and townships in central and western China, and 300 million yuan has been allocated from the central budget to buy 1,822 mobile service vehicles to provide better reproductive health services for women of childbearing age.

The state has intensified efforts to combat domestic violence against women. Already, 27 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government have formulated special rules and regulations on the prevention of domestic violence. Public security organs at many places include service of reporting domestic violence in their "110" emergency police service networks. Many local courts have set up collegial panels for safeguarding the rights and interests of women and anti-domestic-violence collegial panels, and some have launched a trial of habeas corpus for victims of domestic violence.