Women's cause is an integral part of state governance. To advance this cause, China has continued to strengthen institutional support and safeguards, fostering the necessary conditions and environment for the comprehensive development of women.
1. Improving the Framework for Advancing Women's Cause
China has established a mechanism for the work related to women, under which Party committees exercise leadership, governments assume primary responsibility, working committees on children and women play a coordinating role, women's federations work in collaboration, relevant departments provide support, and the whole of society participates. These concerted efforts have ensured that gender equality is upheld in all areas of economic and social development and all aspects of social life.
The people's congresses have strengthened legislation and supervision. The National People's Congress (NPC) has established the Social Development Affairs Committee to undertake legislation, conduct supervision, and handle proposals and suggestions from NPC deputies concerning the protection of women's rights and interests. It attaches importance to incorporating legal initiatives for promoting women's development and safeguarding women's rights and interests into the legislative plans of its Standing Committee, and to soliciting opinions and accepting feasible proposals from women's federations and women themselves during legislative review and legal supervision.
Additionally, the NPC hears and reviews the State Council's report on combating domestic violence, identifies the protection of female employees' lawful and special rights and interests as an important component of enforcement inspections of the Trade Union Law, and urges relevant departments to perform their statutory duties in protecting women's rights and interests. The people's congresses of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government have also set up social development affairs committees to formulate local regulations to supplement national laws, thereby strengthening legal safeguards for women's rights and interests.
The Chinese People's Government has effectively fulfilled its primary responsibility. The government has formulated and organized the implementation of outlines for women's development, and convened meetings on work related to children and women. The working committees on children and women have played their role as deliberative and coordinating bodies, and Party institutions, government departments, judicial authorities, and people's organizations have fulfilled their responsibilities in work related to women. The government has strengthened the statistics monitoring mechanism for the outlines for the development of women in China and established a gender statistics monitoring system covering over 2,400 indicators. Furthermore, gender has been incorporated as a key metric into national censuses and time-use surveys, and the fourth Survey on Social Status of Women in China has been conducted to assess women's development across multiple dimensions.
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has strengthened its role in conducting consultations and offering suggestions. CPPCC committees at all levels perform their duties in political consultation, democratic supervision, and participation in the deliberation and administration of state affairs. They conduct consultations on women's issues through a variety of channels and platforms, including subject-specific, sector-specific and proposal handling consultations, as well as consultative meetings with relevant departments. As one of the 34 sectors defined by the CPPCC, women's federations conduct research and consultations on key issues and major challenges in women's development, such as the protection of women's reproductive and health rights and interests. The National Committee of the CPPCC has conducted consultations and made suggestions to support women's development, addressing issues including fair employment and career development, the strengthening of family ties, values, and traditions, and universal access to childcare services.
Women's federations have served as bridges for connection and communication. The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) is a people's organization of women of all ethnic groups and from all sectors of society in China. It unites women for further emancipation and development under the leadership of the CPC. The ACWF has established an organizational system of women's federations at the national, provincial, prefectural, county, township and village levels, covering government departments, public institutions, new types of economic entities and social organizations, and groups in new forms of employment.
Women's federations at all levels have served as bridges linking the Party and the government with women, and as assistants to the Party. While supporting major national development strategies, they have performed their functions of guiding, serving, and engaging with women, and launched five key initiatives: providing women with political guidance; encouraging them to excel in the workplace; providing guidance and support in family education, family services, and the cultivation of family virtues; offering support for women's rights protection; and improving the problem-solving capability of women's federations and their staff's professional competence.
In addition, women's federations have mobilized resources to support women's development through six practical measures: supporting female volunteers who provide care for children in need; growing the scale and quality of female-dominated family services; improving vocational training for women; developing a system of childcare services that is accessible to all; advancing the Dream of the Future action of the Spring Bud Project to help underprivileged schoolgirls; and telling engaging stories about the development of Chinese women. Through these initiatives, they have delivered accessible services and tangible benefits to women, children and families.
2. Setting Objectives and Tasks for Women's Development with Overall Planning
China's national development plans have clarified the strategic tasks for women's development. Five-year plans are blueprints and guides of action for China's economic and social development during their designated time frames. The government has incorporated objectives for women's development into these plans for meeting its strategic goal of modernization.
The 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015) for the first time included a section dedicated specifically to advancing women's all-round development. It also set requirements for developing human resources with a focus on women, strengthening labor protection for women, and resolutely combating violence and crimes against women. The 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020) further strengthened the protection of women's rights and interests and for the first time devoted a separate chapter to ensuring women's rights and equal access to education, employment, and participation in social affairs, and eliminating discrimination and prejudice against women. It also set the targets for poverty alleviation and reduction among women. The 14th Five-year Plan (2021-2025) outlines further measures to safeguard women's rights and interests in areas including health, education, employment, participation in state governance, and social security. For the first time, it contains a section specifically dedicated to the strengthening of family development which focuses on improving the supporting policies and services for this goal.
Special plans in related fields have been made to address women's practical development needs. Plans for improving people's wellbeing – including the Outline of Healthy China 2030, the Outline of the Development Plan for Education (2024-2035), and the special plans for boosting employment and the development of civil affairs undertakings during the 14th Five-year Plan period – have put forward policies and measures to improve the health of women and children, safeguard women's equal rights to education, support women's employment, entrepreneurship, and career development, and improve care and services for rural women who stay behind to care for families while their husbands work in cities.
The National Medium- and Long-term Talent Development Plan (2010-2020) has outlined arrangements to promote gender balance in the talent pool and strengthen the training and selection of female talent. The National Action Plan for Scientific Literacy (2021-2035) has made specific arrangements to improve the scientific literacy of rural women. The National Human Rights Action Plan, in all four phases, includes a section on the measures for safeguarding women's rights and interests, covering personal, property, education, employment and health rights.
Outlines for women's development have laid out phased targets. Since 1995, China has formulated and implemented four outlines for women's development, each outlining the primary objectives, strategies, and measures for women's development in its corresponding phase.
The Outline of Women's Development in China (2021-2030) contains 75 primary objectives and 93 strategic measures across eight fields: health, education, economy, participation in decision-making and administration, social security, family development, environment, and the legal sector. The document also outlines the 41 Party and government departments and institutions responsible for implementing these strategic measures.
Nationwide, 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, along with over 300 prefectures and cities and more than 2,000 counties and districts, have formulated plans for local women's development based on their actual conditions. The objectives and tasks set in the Outline dovetail with national development plans, align with sector-specific plans, and are integrated across the national, provincial, city and county levels. A comprehensive planning system for advancing women's development is now firmly in place.
(Source: SCIO White Paper China's Achievements in Women's Well-Rounded Development in the New Era)
Editor: Cui Rui
