China marks progress in women's rights

China will strive to further improve women's welfare and rights, a senior women's affairs official pledged at a news briefing on Tuesday, pointing to the country's achievements to date in narrowing the gap between men and women.

"Chinese women have achieved more equality in exercising democratic rights, participating in social economic development and sharing the fruits of reform and development," said Song Xiuyan, vice-president of the All-China Women's Federation.

However, boosting gender equality is a "heavy and tedious" task, Song said at the briefing about developments on gender equality and women's issues held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing.

China has made remarkable progress in reducing the inequities that women face in education, in the labor market, in political participation and even in the distribution of housework, according to a white paper released at the briefing - Gender Equality and Women's Development in China.

Chinese women's life expectancy reached 77.4 years in 2010, five years more than men, thanks to enhanced public health services for women and a sharply reduced maternal mortality rate, the white paper said.

It also said that Chinese women have matched or exceeded their male counterparts in embracing the new round of mass entrepreneurship driven by Internet technology innovations. Women initiated 55 percent of Internet business startups in 2013.

The concept that men and women should share household chores is now better accepted and implemented. Data show that husbands spent 150 minutes less than women in daily housework 10 years ago, but the gap has been shortened to 74 minutes, the paper said.

President Xi Jinping will deliver the keynote speech at the Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, said Hu Kaihong, deputy director of the Press Bureau of the State Council Information Office, who hosted the news conference. The summit will be co-hosted by China and UN Women in New York, he said.

Despite the country's efforts in promoting gender equality, discrimination against women in the labor market still exists although it's less visible, said Shao Jin, a human resources manager at a private company in Dalian, Liaoning province.

"We prefer to hire men for jobs that require the ability to handle huge workloads and high pressure such as sales, but if we put 'male only' on our employment advertisements, the recruiting website will not approve publishing it," she said.

Contact the writer at hedan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/23/2015 page6)