Women in China: Partners in the Journey of Development and Prosperity I
Dr Syed Mehboob
Senior Business and Political Analyst
Women are very important and an integral part of human society. No country, nation can grow, develop, or move forward without the inclusion of women in the journey of development. The Chinese journey toward development, modernization, and prosperity is astonishing, and Chinese women are worthy, respectable, and dignified partners. China has always upheld the constitutional principle of equality between men and women, which is also a basic state policy for promoting progress in the country and in society. Over the years, China has progressively improved its laws and regulations, developed public policies, worked out development plans, and pressed forward steadily with gender equality and women’s development.
Women’s development in China not only gives expression to China’s own progress but also constitutes a historical contribution made to global equality, development, and peace. China’s national mechanism for promoting the status of women, fully utilizing government resources and effectively mobilizing social resources, lays an important foundation for promoting gender equality and women’s development. Over the past two decades, the mechanism has been
constantly improved to allow it to play an increasingly prominent role.
Women’s development was included in China’s 10th, 11th, 12th,13th , 14th, and 15th five-year plans for economic and social development, each time with greater emphasis, clearer goals, and more effective measures for promoting coordinated development between Chinese women and China’s economy and society. The State Council has issued programs covering different periods for the development of Chinese women, clearly defining the overall goals, key areas, and policies and measures to be adopted for women’s development at different stages. People’s governments at and above the county level in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities have worked out similar programs for women’s development for areas within their respective jurisdiction, thus forming a top-down framework for promoting women’s development at all levels. Adopting the target management responsibility system, the working committees on children and women at various levels resolve and allocate the main targets to the related functional departments of the governments and see to it that they are included in corresponding plans and implemented. They also established an appraisal system and carried out assessments of the implementation results of the programs at the end of every year, and in the middle and at the end of the implementation of the programs, ensuring that the targets set in these programs were met as scheduled.
The state has established a working mechanism featuring leadership by the government, multi-departmental cooperation, and participation of the whole of society. The State Council and local governments at various levels hold working meetings on children and women on a regular basis to discuss and make plans. Every year, the State Council and local working committees on children and women hold special meetings to hear reports from all their member units, analyze progress made in the implementation of the current program for women’s development, and work out measures to address matters of pressing concern for the smooth implementation of the program. Guidance has been given to local governments in actively exploring the establishment of an assessment system of laws and policies related to gender equality, to provide at the source, a solid institutional guarantee for promoting gender equality and women’s development. The state supports the women’s federation organizations in representing and safeguarding women’s rights and promoting gender equality. As the organizational system of women’s federations is better established, it has been playing an increasingly prominent role in conducting theoretical studies and carrying out publicity, education, and training programs in relation to gender equality. The state has gradually improved the gender statistics system. A comprehensive statistics system has been established on women’s development, and it has been included in the routine statistics and statistical surveys undertaken by the state and relevant departments. Women’s health, well-being, and development indicators and gender-disaggregated indicators have been standardized and improved. The state has gradually established a monitoring system for women’s conditions at the national and provincial (autonomous region, municipal) levels, worked out a statistical monitoring and indicator system, and established a system in which local governments and relevant departments produce comprehensive statistical reports and submit reports for review regularly.
Equal participation in economic activities and equitable access to economic resources are the basic conditions for the well-being and development of women. While pressing forward with a strategic adjustment of its economic structure and reform and innovation of its growth model, China fully protects the economic interests of women, promoting women's equal participation in economic development and equal access to the fruits of reform and development.
Significant progress has been made in alleviating poverty among women. During the implementation of comprehensive poverty reduction strategies, China has considered the impact of urbanization, aging, climate change, and other social and market factors on poverty among women, and strengthened efforts to address such poverty. China has implemented a program for poverty alleviation through development in rural areas, making Women a key focus of attention and giving priority to poverty alleviation projects for women when all other conditions are equal, striving to improve the development capacity of women and bringing more benefits to them as a group. The number of impoverished women has dropped by an enormous margin, and the severity of the poverty of women has been continuously alleviated.
China actively promotes equality in education, adjusting the structure of education, adhering to the principle of gender equality, and working hard to guarantee equal rights and opportunities for both men and women to access education. The gender gap in education has been markedly narrowed. The state implements the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China and other relevant laws, regulations, and policies, and takes practical measures to improve women’s education. It has implemented a special policy to ensure school-age girls enjoy equal access to compulsory education.
China’s history has seen a higher focus on men being the core of not just their families but also playing a crucial role in in overall country’s growth and development. Post-Confucius era, society labeled men as the yang and women as the yin. In this same vein, society views Yang as active, smart, and the dominant half. This is compared with Yin, which is soft, passive, and submissive. These ideologies are not as prominent today.
Mao Zedong’s famously published collection of speeches entitled ‘The Little Red Book’ offers a glimpse into the People’s Republic’s public policy in relation to women, as Mao himself is quoted as saying, ‘Women hold up half the sky’ and more overtly.’’
To build a great socialist society, it is of the utmost importance to arouse the broad masses of women to join in productive activity. Men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in production. Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.
Women's rights and gender discrimination have been a problem for many years in China. Various restrictions were imposed on women to suppress them in society. Income discrepancy and traditional gender roles in the country aim to place women as inferior compared with their male counterparts.
There are diverse sectors where women face discrimination. Women of the past and present in China have dealt with unfair employment practices. They have had to jump over the unnecessary hurdles just to keep up with their male counterparts in society. The Chinese government claims to better prioritize the promotion of gender equality. Women in China make up approximately 49% of the population. In modern China, the lives of women have changed significantly nd the rise of the People’s Republic of China. (PRC). The achievement of women's liberation has been on the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), since the beginning of the PRC. During the Mao era, many policies were carried out to promote gender equality. The New Marriage Law, passed on May 1, 1950, outlawed forced marriage and concubinage. The Great Leap Forward, while focusing on improving total productivity, created work opportunities for women. As of 2023, Chinese girls receive more schooling on average than boys. Several studies attribute the improvement in girls' schooling. Hhalf of all college students are women. China's rate of increase in women's higher education levels has been substantially greater than countries with similar, and some countries with higher, per capita income levels. Studies for the years 2000-2009 found that Chinese women had higher financial returns on education than men did, with an 11-12% return per year of schooling compared with 6-7% for men.
The People's Republic of China has enacted various laws to protect the healthcare rights of women, including the Maternal and Child Care law.[This law and numerous others focus on protecting the rights of all women in the People's Republic of China.
The recently held Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women 2025 in Beijing, addressed by President Xi Jinping, marked a defining moment in China’s journey of women’s empowerment. The event, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, reaffirmed China’s unwavering commitment to gender equality, shared development, and global cooperation.
In his keynote address, President Xi underlined that “women truly hold up half the sky” in China’s modernization and global progress. He emphasized that women’s development is not only about personal empowerment but also about family harmony, social stability, and national prosperity. His message carried both pride in the achievements of Chinese women and a vision for their even greater role in shaping the future.( To be continued )
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