Senior researcher praises China's efforts toward gender equality

China has made solid efforts to promote gender equality in the past few decades, which have yielded fruitful results in facilitating the comprehensive development of women in the country, said a senior researcher.

On Friday morning, the All-China Journalists Association held a press salon focusing on "China's practice in promoting gender equality and the comprehensive development of women", during which Guo Ye, director of the Women's Studies Institute of China under the All-China Women's Federation, summarized the country's efforts in promoting gender equality after the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

She said China has adhered to the basic national policy of gender equality and protection of the rights of women and children, and the nation has established a sound legal system to secure women's development.

"I would like to specifically introduce the 48th article of China's Constitution, which explains that Chinese women enjoy equal rights with men in politics, economy, culture and social and family life, and the nation protects women's rights and benefits, practices equal pay for equal work and cultivates and promotes female officials," she said, adding that it has further improved the protection of women by implementing the Anti-domestic Violence Law in 2016.

She also noted China's progress in improving women and children's health conditions, education, encouraging women to get highly engaged in economic activities and political management, and covering more women within the enhanced social security system.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show that Chinese women's life expectancy has lengthened to 80.88 years old in 2020, improving by 11.61 years old from that in 1981. Also, the illiteracy rate of women aged 15 and above dropped to 4.95 percent in 2020, while the number was 90 percent before the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"Women getting good development opportunities will benefit other people, rather than deprive them of their rights. Men and women are not in opposition," she said, adding that it's necessary to stay alert for some ill-intentioned people who intend to cause social chaos under the banner of radical feminism.