Economic Empowerment Promotes Gender Equality

 September 17, 2015
Women's economic empowerment is an important means of promoting equality throughout the globe. [Women of China]

Women's economic empowerment is an important means of promoting equality throughout the globe. Women are creators of both material and spiritual wealth. Their participation in the economy not only affects their own development, but also affects the sustainable development of the whole world.

The Chinese government has been trying to create an equal environment by enacting laws and implementing policies related to women's development in the economy. With the growth of the national economy and the improvement in women's employability and entrepreneurship, women's incomes are increasing on an ongoing basis.

Intensified Institutional Guarantee for Women's Economic Rights

The central government and competent authorities have developed laws, regulations and policies to protect women's economic rights and improve their economic status.

The Outline of the 12th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2011-2015) and the National Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) play an important role in safeguarding women's economic rights. The Decision of the CCCPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China requires to "eliminate all institutional barriers and employment discrimination affecting equal employment in terms of residence registration, industry, identity, gender and other factors," indicating the great importance CPC attached to equal employment rights for both men and women.

The National Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) sets out a goal "to ensure women's equal access to and ownership of land contracting and management rights in the rural areas." The Ministry of Agriculture, the ACWF and other departments have attached great importance to land ownership confirmation.

To ensure women's access to land contracts, as well as their management rights and interests, via the confirmation registry, the Ministry of Agriculture has written it into the relevant documents that the leading group for registrations should include officials from women's federations. Women landowners' names should be recorded on the land register form and the confirmation warrant with the corresponding rights should also be empowered. The impact of marital changes on women should also be considered when determining the eligibility of village group members.

In the Notice of Securing the Employment of College Graduates Nationwide issued by the State Council in 2013 and other notices issued by the Teaching Division under the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, new provisions were added to ban the gender-biased requirements for job seekers so as to protect women's right to equal employment.

The Social Insurance Law of the People's Republic of China (2011), the Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Employees (2012) and the Code of Occupational Disease Prevention and Control amended in 2011 provide legal guarantee for safeguarding women's economic rights.

The Opinions on the promotion of Women Worker Organizations in Trade Unions and Full Coverage of Special Collective Contract to Protect the Rights and Interests of Female Employees issued by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in 2011 also strengthened the protection of labor rights and interests of female employees.

Multi-agency Cooperation Boosts Women's Employment and Entrepreneurship

Government departments have taken the initiative to ally with NGOs to provide funding, training and other related support for women's development.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS), the Ministry of Health, the ACWF, the ACFTU and other organizations have jointly carried out a competition of innovative job skills for female employees. And also, by establishing demonstrative training schools in various provinces and cities, the ACFTU has advanced employment and skills training of female employees. During the past five years, about 11 million and 11.9 million female employees have seen their academic and technical titles promoted respectively.

The ACWF in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other 10 ministries launched an initiative called "Two Learns and Two Competes" (learn knowledge and skills and compete for performance and contribution) among rural women, and as of March 2013, a total of 3,268 groups and 13,440 individuals were awarded in recognition of their excellent performance.

In 2011, the ACWF established the All-China Women Hand-knitting Association, encouraging large numbers of women to work at home by flexible schedule or get a job nearby, which has become a livelihood project to relieve employment stress on urban and rural women. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 5,000 bases producing women's hand-woven crafts nationwide, with nearly 10 million women in over 50,000 communities and villages engaged in the hand-weaving business.

From 2009 to 2014, the ACWF jointly with the Ministry of Education, the MHRSS and the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs successively launched the "Mentoring Action for Female College Graduates in Venture Creation," the "Action to Support Female College Graduates in Venture Creation" and, the "Action to Boost Female College Graduates in Venture Creation," in an effort to build up a service platform and create a social context to encourage the employment and entrepreneurship for female college students.

The ACWF also announced the launch of the Women Entrepreneurship and Innovation Action this June in Beijing. The initiative aims to encourage rural and urban women across the country to commit themselves to innovation and entrepreneurship in China's "new normal" economic phase.

Increased Women's Income and Social Security

The third session of Chinese women's social status survey showed that nearly two-thirds of married women (64.4 percent) possessed deposits in their own names, a considerable rise compared with the figure in 2000 (41.5 percent); gender differences were also significantly reduced.

At the same time, efforts have been increasingly made to enhance social insurance for women. According to the data from the third session of Chinese women's social status survey, 73.3 percent and 87.6 percent of urban women residents enjoyed social pension and social health insurance respectively, and 95.5 percent of rural women residents enjoyed social health insurance.

The year 2014 saw the roll-out of a unified basic old-age insurance scheme for both urban and rural residents across the country, improving the benefits for females regarding the old-age security.

The Measures for Maternity Insurance (Draft Exposure 2012) include all employees signing labor contracts with their employers in the Chinese territory into the coverage of maternity insurance. Throughout 2013, the number of people engaged in maternity insurance reached 163.92 million across China, with 5.22 million enjoying the benefits, an increase of 3.11 million passengers over 2010, of which per capita fertility benefits reached 13,455 yuan, up 4,896 yuan over 2009, and per capita maternity medical expenses and maternity subsidies accounted for 3,857 yuan and 11,962 yuan respectively, an increase of 260 yuan and 1,582 yuan over 2012.

Challenges Ahead

Due to years of efforts, the institutional guarantee for women's economic rights has been secured. Cross-departmental cooperation has improved women's employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, and their income and social security has increased. However, the outstanding issues and challenges still remain, including incomplete legal frameworks and relevant policies, a shortage of gender-disaggregated statistics, and family-work conflicts. Thus, the government needs to improve legislation and policies, increase the quality of gender-based statistics, provide more social support for the family-oriented employees, and further increase women's incomes, to narrow down the financial gap between men and women.

Data Speaks

*In 2012, women made up 46 percent of China's labor force, counting those in employment

*Women who work in science and technology made up 40 percent of human resources in the talented fieldWomen make up 25 percent of China's entrepreneurs

*Self-made female entrepreneurs make up half the names in the 2014 Forbes Ranking of the Top 100 Chinese Businesswomen

*Nearly two thirds of married women hold deposits in their own name, 22.9 percent higher than the figure in 2000

(Women of China)

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