Women and Environment

(A) Efforts and Progress

1. Strategic targets have been formulated by the government to promote gender equality and women's development in environment-related areas

In 2012 the Chinese government promulgated the Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020), which designated "women and the environment" as one of six priority areas for women's development, listing in the General Objectives those of "ensuring women's participation in environmental decision making and management on an equal footing and improving the environment for women's development". The Program put forward a number of objectives in the development of women in environment-related areas, which include: To fully implement the principle of gender equality in policies related to the environment and development; to fully address the problem of drinking water safety in rural areas and reduce the impact of water pollution on women's health; to raise up to about 85 percent the proportion of rural population with access to centralized water supply; to raise up to 85 percent the proportion of rural families with sanitary toilets; to ensure that public toilets for women and men in urban areas meet their actual needs; to advocate women's participation in energy conservation and promote low-carbon living by women; and to improve women's capabilities of preventing and coping with natural disasters and meet women's special needs in disaster relief efforts. In a bid to achieve these objectives, the Program set forth relevant strategies and measures to vigorously promote women's progress in the areas of environmental protection and sustainable development.

And also, the report delivered at the 18th National People's Congress in 2012 put forward, for the first time, "beautiful China" as the grand objective of building an "eco-civilization", giving priority to a green, cyclic, and low carbon growth, thereby creating opportunities for women's participation in environmental development.

2. The government promotes women's participation in environmental management and environmental protection

According to statistics, women account for 41.4 percent of the employees at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and its affiliations. As of 2013, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and its affiliations had 932 women leaders, 19 of them were executives at departmental level and above. A total of 108 of them were working directly with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, 12 (11.1 percent) holding a position at vice-departmental level and above and 50 (46.3 percent) at vice-divisional level and above. In addition, women account for 24.7 percent   of the workforce responsible for environmental supervision and law enforcement. There are women members on the Environment and Resources Committee of the National People's Congress.

The government and women's organizations have jointly conducted publicity activities for environmental protection and implement environmental protection projects. In 2012 the National Development and Reform Commission, Office of the Spiritual Civilization Steering Committee of the CPC Central Committee, and the All-China Women's Federation jointly initiated a series of national energy conservation activities dubbed "low-carbon households, fashionable lifestyle", focusing on environmental protection and low-carbon concepts and on making them deep-rooted in households and communities. In 2013, the Ministry and the All-China Women's Federation jointly conducted the activity called "environmental-friendly women messengers" designed to have these messengers guide women and households in cultivating the awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection and ecological awareness and guide the general public in energy conservation for building a resource-saving, environmental-friendly society.

In 2013 the State Forestry Administration, the National Commission for Afforestation, and the All-China Women's Federation jointly conducted the activity called "green homeland for women" to further advance the "Green Project for Women". Over the past five years, 23.5 million yuan has been invested in the project, and 187 national pilot sites and more than 10,000 pilot sites at county level and above for the project have been established. According to incomplete statistics, every year about 100 million women in urban and rural areas across the country participate in volunteer tree planting, construction of major national forestry projects, and treatment to rivers and lakes, therefore promoting improvement of the eco-environment and development of the forestry economy . The All-China Women's Federation, in collaboration with the government, implements biogas projects, with the focus on improving women's capabilities of carrying out these projects. Now a total of 41.697 million rural households across the country are biogas users. The widespread use of biogas lessens women's manual labor and helps improve their health and quality of life, as well as effectively improving the eco-environment in rural areas. 
In addition, from 2011 to 2013, the Greening and City Appearance Office of Shanghai and the Office of Spiritual Civilization of Shanghai, in conjunction with Shanghai Office of the All-China Women's Federation, explored and carried out the practice of garbage separation and reduction, thereby significantly improving the city's environment, beautifying the communities, and improving the residents' behavioral standards. In Shenyang of Liaoning Province, the city's office of the All-China Women's Federation, the Environmental Protection Bureau, and the Bureau of Archives jointly conducted the activity of building energy conserving households, guiding 100,000 households to keep records for energy conservation. The activity won the 7th China Environmental Excellence Award in May 2012.

3. The government has made efforts to improve the residential and ecological environment for women's development

In recent years the government has actively conducted tree planting and afforestation campaigns and promoted the use of biogas, solar energy, and other energy resources to reduce indoor pollution. In particular, the government has initiated the project of providing safe drinking water and sanitary toilets to rural households, thus considerably helping lighten rural women's arduous manual labor and reducing their and their families' health risks. According to the statistics for urban areas, in 2012 97.2 percent of families had access to drinking water, 87.3 percent of waste water was treated, and 84.8 percent of household waste received non-hazardous treatment . As of the end of 2013, a total of 899 million rural residents, or 95.6 percent of the rural population, were provided safe drinking water, with 76.4 percent of the households having access to tap water, up 1.8 percentage points from the previous year. Sanitary toilets were brought to 74.1 percent of rural households, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous year .

4. The government has launched international cooperation, bringing the gender perspective into environmental management and sustainable development projects

China Council for Cooperation on the Environment and Development has consistently considered gender equality an important strategy in project implementation, stipulating that the gender factor be incorporated into various activities and the gender equality perspective be included in relevant suggestions and recommendations on environmental management and sustainable development. In 2004 the Chinese government and the Italian government launched the joint project "environmental management and sustainable development". Since then the two sides have emphasized on including women in training activities, accounting for 24 percent of the members in the 32 training sessions. The Australia-China Environment Development Partnership (2007-2012) paid attention to improving gender equality and the social influence of women's participation in decision making and management, and established the sub-project "gender and water management" to improve rural women's status and role in water management. Since 2011 the disaster relief department of the Civil Affairs Ministry and the National Disaster Relief Center have jointly conducted the UN Women-funded project "research on the role of women in disaster relief efforts" designed to explore the gender-based differences in disaster relief efforts, encourage full consideration of women's participation and protection of women's rights in national policies on disaster relief, and promote gender equality in disaster management. In 2011, Lanzhou University and the Committee of Legislative Affairs of Gansu Provincial NPC started to carry out the UN Women funded project "the need for gender sensitivity in policy making to cope with climate change", in an effort to improve gender sensitivity of Gansu legislative officials in drafting and implementing relevant policies for climate change and promote gender equality in the formulation, execution, evaluation, and monitoring of public policies on climate change.

5. Women NGOs conduct environmental protection activities to promote women's participation in sustainable development on an equal footing

Since 2011, the China Women's Development Foundation, on the basis of the 10th anniversary of the project "water cellars for mothers", has focused on promoting the project "water cellars for mothers • safe drinking water program on school campuses" in order to gradually alleviate the problem of unsafe drinking water on primary and middle school campuses in rural areas. In October 2013, Beijing Cultural Development Center for Rural Girls and Plan International (China) pointed out at the 2nd International Day of the Girl Child and Gender and Disaster Relief Symposium that we should concern the situation of adolescent girls in disasters, care about their rights and needs in disaster and humanitarian relief efforts, and strengthen their capabilities of coping with disasters. In the past five years, the Association of Mothers as Environmental Protection Volunteers of Shaanxi Province has promoted women's participation in environmental protection and thus harmonious ecological development by improving the capabilities of women village heads for building low carbon villages, building bio-energy resources (including biogas) in rural areas, promoting green projects such as water-efficient agriculture and after-disaster reconstruction, and by conducting green public benefit activities. The Women and Environment Group of the Association set up children's drama clubs and art centers for environmental protection to improve children's environmental protection awareness and fully exercise the role of women in family education. In addition, private environmental protection organizations, such as Nature's Friends and the Greening Center, continue to engage in publicity and advocacy on environmental protection, provide factual inputs for the government's decision making on the environment, and actively participate in related decision making.

(B) Gaps and Challenges

1. The need for further inclusion of gender in the formulation of environmental and sustainable development policies and programs

First of all, with respect to gender and environment/sustainable development, decision makers need to further enhance the gender awareness and sensitivity and translate political commitments into real actions. Second, except China's Agenda 21 and Program for the Development of Chinese Women, other policies on environmental management and sustainable development have rarely touched upon issues of women and the environment and sustainable development. Policy makers take into little consideration the differing effects of environmental pollution and ecological degradation under globalization and rapid economic growth in China on men and women.

2. Inadequate participation by women in environmental management and decision making

Women's responsibilities for sustainable development are not matched by their rights or resources in possession. First, due to the influence of traditional concepts on gender, women have less opportunities to receive higher education in science and engineering and thus lack the necessary environmental management knowledge and skills for decision making. Women's participation in various levels of decision making in environmental management is limited in terms of both the number of women participants and the extent of participation. Second, women often passively participate in environmental protection efforts and activities, and fewer of them participate in environmental management and decision making as organizers or leaders. Women's environmental protection efforts are generally not well recognized; as a consequence, it is difficult for them to achieve empowerment or development through participation in environmental protection. Third, the local ecological and environmental knowledge and experience of rural women and women at grassroots levels are often ignored. Fourth, some private environmental protection organizations often lack the gender perspective in their environmental protection activities and pay little attention to the differing effects of the environment on men and women.

3. Assessments of sustainable development policies and related environmental projects lack the gender perspective

The degradation of the environment and natural resources and climate change has differing effects on men and women. However, this is often ignored by gender-neutral environmental and sustainable development policies and projects, and gender sensitivity is lacking in certain policy making activities. The existing assessment systems lack the gender perspective in assessing the differing effects of the environment and environmental policies and projects on men and women. In addition, the lack of collection, analysis, and use of gender-based data and insufficient research on issues related to women, the environment, and sustainable development also adversely affect the results of assessments.

(C) Suggestions in Response

1. Further promote inclusion of the gender perspective in mainstream decision making at governments of various levels as well as in sustainable development policies and relevant programs of action. For instance, relevant educational and training programs should be conducted to improve decision makers' environmental awareness, gender sensitivity, and capabilities of gender mainstreaming. Also, policy makers and designers of programs should heed women's voice and consider their needs and assess their differing effects on men and women.

2. Promote women's participation in environmental and resource management and environmental decision making and law enforcement, thus improving their capabilities for participation in environmental and sustainable development. The proportion of women in the personnel for environmental legislation, decision making, and law enforcement and environmental organizations should be further increased. Women's participation in environmental research and policy making processes should be increased. The traditional concept on gender-based division of labor should be discarded, so that women have more opportunities to receive higher education and training in science and engineering and thus improve their knowledge and skills for participating in environmental decision making.

3. Improve relevant assessment instruments. Effective mechanisms for collection, analysis, and use of gender-based data should be created. Research on environmental issues from the gender perspective, including issues on climate change, disasters, and women, should be strengthened. Policies and programs of action should be assessed from the perspectives of women's needs and their equal access to natural resources.

(Women of China)