Women need bigger political role

Chinese women should be given more power to take part in making decisions in political and public policies, according to the preliminary observations and conclusions by a UN women's rights group.

Urgent action is necessary to ensure the equal participation of women in top decision-making bodies, including by the use of quotas, Frances Raday, who currently heads the expert group, said at a press conference held in Beijing Thursday.

The working group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice under the United Nations Human Rights Council spent eight days visiting Beijing, Shanghai, and the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province from December 12 to 19 to gather first-hand information related to the situations of women.

Raday said that the working group is concerned that China's Gender Development Index has not increased concurrently with the rise in the Human Development Index, while the Gender Empowerment Measures have even dropped.

"Empowerment of women is an essential component of gender equality," Raday said, adding that the government should define gender equality as including women's rights to participate on the basis of equality with men at all levels of decision-making.

"China has made progress in encouraging women's participation in politics," Li Hongxiang, a professor with the School of Law at Jilin University, which specializes in marriage law, said Thursday, adding that women's voices now can be heard through more channels than before.

Of the 2,987 National People's Congress (NPC) deputies this year, 699 are women, with 62 of them being newly elected. Females comprise 23.4 percent of the deputies, representing a 2.07-percent increase from the previous NPC term, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"The female ratio in high-level decision-making bodies is still very low," said Li Yinhe, a sociologist and sexologist, adding that increasing the ratio would help change the situation of men controlling the political resources.

Li Yinhe noted that both men and women need to change the stereotype of the male breadwinner model. However, there must be a consistent effort to further improve the situation in the long run, Li added.

Guo Jianmei, a well-known lawyer and women's rights advocate, said that letting women be involved in policy-making decisions can safeguard women's rights in all other aspects.

"It's the foundation of gender equality," Guo said.

Besides calling for empowerment of women, the group also provided suggestions to improve the lives of women, including calling for further examination by the government into the impact of market economy transition and establishing a legislative framework to prevent discrimination against women in employment.

In 2012, Shenzhen passed the Regulation of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on the Promotion of Gender Equity, the first of its type in Chinese mainland to ensure equality.

The working group will present its final conclusions to the UN in June 2014.