Institutional Building for Enhancement of Women's Status and Gender Mainstreaming

(A) Efforts and Progress

1. Gender equality has been further incorporated in mainstream legislation

As of the end of 2013, 31 provincial-level jurisdictions launched the Implementation Measures for the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and Interests based on the Amendment to the Law 2005, and 29 provincial-level jurisdictions launched local regulations on preventing and combating domestic violence. The Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses revised in March 2010 and the Villagers' Committee Organization Law revised in October 2010 provide for the number and proportion of women in political decision making. In June 2012, the Regulations of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on Gender Equality Promotion were promulgated upon approval of the Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress, providing for gender equality authorities, gender budgeting and gender impact assessment, gender-disaggregated statistics, media responsibility and so forth. In 2013, the Standing Committee of 12th NPC included the development of the Domestic Violence Law in its five-year legislative plan.

In the Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Employees approved by the State Council in 2012 and the confirmation, registration and certification of rural land contract and management rights in 2014, urban female employees and rural women respectively got their deserved labor protection and land rights guarantee. Some local governments have begun to incorporate gender equality awareness into mechanisms for legal policy setting. For example, in March 2012, Jiangsu Province took the lead in establishing a Jiangsu Provincial Advisory and Evaluation Committee on Gender Equality in Policies and Regulations, which put forward relevant suggestions and recommendations for 18 local provisions successively from a gender perspective, including the Regulations of Jiangsu Province on Maternity Insurance for Employees (draft standard), among which 35 recommendations were written into the relevant policies and regulations. In 2014, Zhejiang, Beijing and Anhui set up their respective committees to assess gender equality in policies and regulations, with specific practices stressing their own features, setting a good example for other areas of China. Also in 2014, the General Office of the CPC Gansu Provincial Committee and Gansu People's Government Office jointly issued a notice on the Opinions on the Implementation of the Basic State Policy of Gender Equality of Gansu Province, proposing to create an expert group on gender equality under the legislative body and establish a mechanism to assess gender equality in policies and regulations so as to ensure that the province's various types of local laws, regulations, separate regulations and normative documents as well as public policy can fully reflect the principle of gender equality.

2. New progress has been made in gender equality assurance

National mechanisms for the advancement of women's status have been constantly improved, serving as the organizational guarantee on gender equality. The National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council (hereinafter referred to as the NWCCW) was established in 1990, always chaired by a member from the State Council. The current chairperson is Ms. Liu Yandong. Member units of the NWCCW have grown from 19 at the beginning to the current 35 departments, each headed by a deputy minister. At present, governments of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), prefectures (leagues) and counties (districts) have set up the relevant institutions. The NPC and its Standing Committee set up the Office of Trade Unions, Youth Leagues and Women's Federations, regularly listening to the reports on gender equality advancement by various committees and departments. Since 2010, enforcement inspection and survey has been carried out on the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and Interests and several other relevant laws. The CPPCC Committee for Social and Legal Affairs set up a task force on women and children, while Women's Federation is one of the 34 CPPCC constituencies, which, through valuable suggestions for addressing the key and difficult issues in the development of women and active processing of proposals facilitating gender equality and women's endeavor, has played an important role in voicing women's needs and safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. Via its five leadership groups (including that responsible for the initiative "Two Learns and Two Competes"), the ACWF has been driving and coordinating economic development, family enhancement and rights protection, and has functioned in legislation and enforcement to some extent through a series of working systems such as drafting the Program for the Development of Chinese Women, executing the enforcement inspection, reporting the related progress, writing up evaluation reports, etc.

In the development and implementation of the national action plans, the Report to the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China 2012 claims to insist on the basic state policy of gender equality and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of women and children, with gender equality written into CPC's policy agenda for the first time, reflecting the political commitment of the Chinese ruling party to translating gender equality into the mainstream values. The Outline of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2011-2015) also sets forth a dedicated section describing the plan for women's development in an all-round way. The Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) has also been developed by the government. While writing plans for women and children's development, local planners have taken innovative forms to work out five-year development plans for women and children and implement them in line with local economic and social strategies. In addition, women's rights are included as an independent section in the National Human Rights Action Plans of China (2009-2010) launched by the State Council in 2011 and an individual section in its successor, the Plan (2012-2015).
Research institutions and selection mechanisms for gender equality have grown in an innovative manner, providing theoretical support and social context for gender equality. So far, 17 provincial-level jurisdictions have established a total of 32 women/gender studies and training bases, with regular annual meetings and conferences held for research and discussion of gender issues. Since 2012, the mainstream media across China have nominated the top ten news events on gender equality annually to promote gender awareness through mass media, triggering social attention to gender equality topics.

3. Capacity building has been enhanced in relation to gender mainstreaming

Mechanisms have been furthered to improve gender-based statistics, which has been gradually incorporated into the conventional statistical survey system of the state, with the dedicated gender statistics authority and personnel assigned at the county and provincial levels, each building a solid partnership with gender research institutions. In 2012, the NBSC revised the comprehensive statistical system for the situation of women and children according to the Monitor Index System under the NPAs for Women and Children 2011-2020, forming a more new system of statistical indicators that can better reflect the situation of women and children. In 2010, the ACWF and the NBS jointly implemented the third session of Chinese women's social status survey, collecting gender-disaggregated statistical data on various domains and groups, including but not limited to educational, economic, political and other fields, as well as high-level professionals, relocated women influenced by migration, old-age women and girls. In the same year, the NBS launched the sixth national census, which contained gender-disaggregated population data. In addition, it has complied and issued several gender statistics materials and publications.

Gender budgeting mechanisms have been explored. A number of local governments have set a fiscal investment standard for women's cause funding at one yuan per person, with the working funds of women's federation included into the budget. In 2014, Chongqing achieved a breakthrough in this regard by doubling the special funding standard. Meanwhile, gender equality budget has been piloted in some places to accumulate experience and practice. After the release of China's first government document on gender budgeting, the Notice on Trial Measures of Jiaozuo City for the Management of Local-level Gender-responsive Fiscal Budget of Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, which was issued in 2009, Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province, Wenling City in Zhejiang Province and Shenzhen City in Guangdong Province followed the suit in approach to gender budgeting, with useful experience gained to provide reference for improved gender budgeting in China.

These measures have contributed to more competent staff. The relevant agencies have strengthened personnel gender training. Publicity for the basic state policy of gender equality has been reinforced through meetings, lectures and schemes, where gender training by domain and by theme has been conducted, covering health, education, combating domestic violence, gender mainstreaming capacity building and so on. In 2011, the NWCCW Office held a national work conference on women and children, strengthening gender equality awareness of provincial leadership with a focus on gender training for media practitioners, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, teachers and other relevant groups to enhance their gender-sensitiveness.

(B) Gaps and Challenges

1. Mainstreaming of gender equality into law and policy

First, the existing legal system is flawed in weak convergence, conflicting terms and inferior operability. Some of the laws and policies still lack a gender perspective, or cannot be effectively performed in spite of the anti-discrimination provisions. Next, the evaluation mechanisms for gender equality in laws and policies are taking shape without the guidance of a competent authority at the state level with clear responsibilities. Third, some policy-makers and enforcers are not satisfactorily gender-sensitive.

2. Institutional building for a higher status of women

First, as the basic role of WCCW at all levels is to coordinate for deliberation, its authority and efforts need to be furthered to strengthen inter-sectoral coordination in the face of difficulties in mobilizing and involving senior officials, building follow-up monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, as well as concentrating on specific issues of concern. Besides, monitoring and tracing of national outlines and programs follow-up needs to be ameliorated.

3. Shortage of strategies and methods in approach to gender mainstreaming

First, in respect of gender statistics, the national statistical systems cannot meet the actual needs, since gender-disaggregated indicators should be refined in some areas, while the quality of some gender-based statistics is neither representative nor gender-sensitive. Gender related statistical data have not been well shared across the relevant departments in the actual work. Second, in terms of gender budgeting, governmental sense of responsibility and awareness of boosting gender equality needs to be strengthened. The relative shortage of mechanisms and resource guarantee for gender mainstreaming stresses the significance of capacity building in this regard, as gender mainstreaming calls for support and participation by the whole society, especially the males. Third, staff training is still lagging behind in awareness and capacity building for gender mainstreaming, while access to authorization and information is not yet smoothly channeled.

(C) Suggestions in Response

1. Gender mainstreaming in legislation and policy making

The review and evaluation mechanisms for gender equality in laws and policies should be improved, while the influence and authority of the NWCCW, women's federations and other gender equality institutions on the development and revision of law and policy should be enhanced. The text as well as the implementation procedure of laws and policies should be analyzed and assessed from the perspective of gender equality. More efforts should be made in training gender-sensitive legislative, judicial and enforcement personnel.

2. Enhanced efforts in institutional building

National gender equality bodies should be optimized so that they can effectively take a gender perspective on government-related work, fulfilling coordination, collaboration and auditing tasks. In-house joint mechanisms should be formed across member units, such as the establishment of a dedicated team of gender equality in a critical sector for integrated management of gender equality issues, accelerating cross-sectoral cooperation on this basis.

Experience should be drawn from localities to establish new mechanisms and make use of existing ones, driving gender equality according to local conditions. After summarizing the characteristics and advantages of the gender equality assessment mechanisms applied to different areas, we should employ leadership seminars, fortnight consultations and other reality-based working mechanisms to crosscut gender issues.

State obligations and government responsibilities to promote gender equality and protect women's rights should be strengthened, including gender equality and women's development in the economic and social development planning of governments at all levels as well as in strategic planning for building an overall well-off society, with practical and concrete targets set to enable execution and supervision, while mechanisms for exposure and feedback be phased in.

3. Improved approach to gender mainstreaming strategies and methods

Gender-based statistics should be enhanced. The gender statistics system should be improved to promote the inclusion of gender statistics content in the Statistics Law, as well as a routine task of the departments concerned, so that collection, analysis and publication of gender-disaggregated data can be completed via a stable system. The collection of gender-based statistics should be ameliorated. For instance, the NPAs for Women and Children can be used as a starting point for researchers to establish a database of indicators reflecting progress in gender equality and women's development. The sharing of gender statistics should be extended, coupled with extensive training accordingly.

Gender-based budgeting should be intensified and combined with the basic state policy of gender equality and gender mainstreaming: a system for gender budgeting should be cultivated step by step, with gender-sensitive factors added to the whole budgeting process rather than treated as merely part of the project budget. The philosophy of gender equality should be affirmed, seeking a transfer from technical tools to policy components. Mainstreaming of gender awareness shall be performed in-depth, not to use gender budgeting as the only yardstick for women's representation.

Governmental staff should be enlightened and enabled regarding gender awareness and competence so that they can consciously implement the basic state policy of gender equality and carry out gender analysis of law and policy measures, better playing the social function in fostering gender equality and women's development.

(Women of China)