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China / Society

G (irls) 20 promotes more and better jobs for women

By Su Zhou (China Daily) Updated: 2016-08-10 07:21

Hong Xinyu, a 20-year-old college student from East China, said her dream is to see more Chinese women succeed in their ambition to be entrepreneurs.

Hong, China's representative at the G (irls)20 Summit in Beijing on Tuesday, told the international gathering that her plan is to open a workshop to help women who were unable to go to college get training in management and leadership.

"Chinese women still don't have enough opportunities to achieve career success," she said. "One important reason is that many of us lack leadership ability and entrepreneurship."

Twenty-four young women-chosen for their experience, ambition and learning ability from more than 1,700 applicants from G20 member countries-joined this year's summit of G (irls) 20.

G (irls)20, established in 2009, is an organization based in Canada that is devoted to promoting greater female participation in the workforce around the world.

Farah Mohamed, head of G (irls)20, said that China stands out internationally for producing impressive examples of women who are in power, particularly in business.

"We have women being promoted to senior level jobs. We don't have enough, but we have more," she said. "The company Didi Chuxing, which just acquired the China business of Uber, is run by a woman. That's incredible, and we need to see more of that."

A report released last year by Hurun, the Shanghai wealth research firm best known for its "China Rich List", showed that eight of the world's top-10 richest self-made women are from China, compared with two from the United States.

Zhou Qunfei, who heads touch-screen maker Lens Technology, stormed to the top of the list with her $7.8 billion fortune.

The young women at Tuesday's meeting brought more ideas to increase the rate of female participation in the workforce around the world.

The G20 has agreed on a global "gender gap goal" that would translate into more than 100 million new jobs for women across the G20 nations.

According to the International Labor Organization, between 1995 and 2015, the proportion of female population in the global workforce decreased from 52.4 to 49.6 percent. Worldwide, the chances for women to participate in the labor market remain almost 27 percentage points lower than for men, according to the ILO.

Hong, a sociology major at Renmin University of China, is determined to push the mission forward.

"I am very interested in spending time with kids. I am also an amiable person. I will focus on elementary education of underprivileged groups."

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