CHINA

Currently, women account for 45 percent of the national work force.

The Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2001 - 2010) set a goal for women to make up 40 percent of the work force by 2010. The percentage of women in the work force now exceeds that goal.

According to statistics, in 2005, 16.451 million women worked in six major national industries, which were computers, telecom, finance, education, public health and social security. Compared with 2003, the total number of working women increased by 6.8 percent. Public health, social security and social welfare service record the lion's share of female employee, occupying 59.1 percent.

Meanwhile, women enjoy the same labor and social welfare rights as men. By the end of 2005, 174.87 million working people in the country had endowment policy. From 2000 to 2005, 70.39 million new people have taken part in it, including 27.75 million women with an increase of 49 percent. The percentage of women who have medical insurance, unemployment insurance and injury insurance has increased significantly.

There are more than 15 million female leaders in China today, or 38 percent of all the leaders. The National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council released statistics on women in the leading bodies of province, prefecture and county as 10.3 percent, 12.9 percent and 17.2 percent respectively, increasing by 1.3 percent, 0.7 percent and 0.5 percent, since 2003. At the same time, the proportion of female leaders in all level leading bodies has grown sharply by an average of 10 percent.

Additionally, there were 604 female deputies of the tenth National People's Congress (NPC), occupying 20.2 percent of all deputies, which was a slight decrease from the ninth NPC. However, there were 21 female Standing Committee deputies of the tenth NPC, accounting for 13.2 percent of total deputies, up 0.5 percent from the ninth.
The 373 female members of the tenth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) made up 16.7 percent of the total, up 1.2 percent from the ninth. The proportion of female members of the tenth CPPCC recorded the highest point in Chinese history. There were 35 female Standing Committee members of the tenth CPPCC, accounting for 11.71 percent of the Standing Committee, and representing a 1.8 percent increase from the ninth.

The Chinese Academy of Science recently announced that more than one-third of scientists are women. However, the number of high-ranking female scientists is quite low. The proportion of women in the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering is less than 5.5 percent of the total.

(Source: chinapop.gov.cn / Translated by Women of China)