Women in China have made full use of their unique role in fighting poverty and have made significant achievements in poverty alleviation in the past several years.
In December 2015, the All-China Women's Federation initiated a poverty alleviation campaign to help women start businesses and get job training. The country has made headway in promoting gender equality, especially regarding women's participation in national economic development, employment and management of state and social affairs.
Wang Weiguo, head of the publicity team for the 12th National Women's Congress, the top governing body of the All-China Women's Federation, said at a conference on Monday that progress has been made in eliminating educational obstacles for girls and teenagers, and expanding the employment market for women.
"Women contribute 43.1 percent of the country's workforce, and 55 percent of entrepreneurs in the internet industry are female," he said.
Compared with men, women in China have limited access to resources because they generally are less educated and have fewer professional skills, he said.
More than 3,800 platforms for female entrepreneurship have been set up across the country. The platforms have helped women establish more than 350,000 rural agricultural centers and almost 600,000 homestay lodges, according to the federation.
Local authorities have trained more than 100,000 women to set up e-commerce platforms, which have helped more than 15 million women increase their income, it said.
The country has set up 1,706 housekeeping enterprises nationwide providing jobs for 700,000 people. Moreover, 998 housekeeping training centers have been built, including 139 national-level centers. They provide training for up to 600,000 women every year.
Nearly 2.83 million women have received a total of 189 billion yuan ($27.2 billion) in interest-free small loans in the past five years, which have helped them start their own businesses and increase their incomes.
Different levels of women's federations have set up 1,300 hand-knitting associations, creating new jobs for 10 million women. They have also organized nearly 200,000 training courses and more than 7 million rural women have benefited from them.
The country has founded 858 national-level modern agricultural technology demonstration centers and 20,000 centers at other levels, which have helped increase the income of more than 2.6 million rural women.
Hebei Women's Federation has implemented poverty-alleviation programs focusing on modern agriculture, household handicrafts, rural tourism housekeeping services and job training.
Li Jiejing, a woman from Laiyuan county in Hebei, has shaken off poverty and earns 160,000 yuan annually. She has her own family farm that employs 50 local people.
"The job training courses offered by the local women's federation has helped me to start my own business and pay back all the debts I owned because of my father's illness," she said. "I am no longer poor and I want to make my contributions to help my fellow villagers get out of poverty."
