'Wonder' women set sights high with launch of leadership boot camp

To Sun, as head of an online travel service company, she regards female employees as valuable assets to the industry. Citing their proficiency with details, communication and caring for others, she believes that women are better at product design, provide better service and offer a better customer experience than men.

According to Sun, more than half the staff at Ctrip are female. They occupy 33 percent of the top management team, while 29 percent of them work in the technical team.

She also noticed that women have become more confident and daring. "Years ago, most of the staff members that came to my office to talk about promotion and pay increases at the end of a year were male," says Sun. "But in recent years, more female staff members are stepping up to express their expectations for promotion."

She encourages more women to break through the "glass ceiling "in their workplace and take on more leadership roles.

Virginia Tan also shared her experiences at Lean In China and discussed the rapid growth it has enjoyed over the past six years - it is now community of more than 100,000 members from more than 25 cities and 100 universities around China.

Speaking of their original idea behind the school, Tan, a finance lawyer with US experience and a "global shaper" selected by the World Economic Forum in 2014, says: "We can see women are facing both opportunities and challenges in the workplace in China. That's why we wanted to set up the Wonder School, to help them to make more informed decisions."

Tan says that modern Chinese women are often told what to do, or what not to, by society, but they should have the right to make decisions on their own.

To offer Chinese women more positive support is the aim behind Wonder School, Tan adds.

"We wanted to create an ecosphere, a platform that links women, companies and investors, and help them incubate their projects and push forward the 'Her Economy'," says Tan.

Liu Hui, a partner at the Wonder School, describes the online and offline courses offered by the institution. The online courses will focus on "thinking training", while the offline programs are presented in the form of training camps, where students receive guidance from mentors.

The Wonder School is not only "a tool and a course", but also "a social platform which provides services for women in the workplace", Liu says.

In their blueprints for the school, Liu says, the course system is like a pyramid, with the top section taken up by the "entrepreneurial school", followed by the "work school" and then the "happiness school" at the bottom.

"Our plan is to start with the work school and our first product will be a female leadership course," Liu says.

The Wonder School will welcome its first intake of students in September.

liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn