A senior official with the
All-China
Women's Federation yesterday pledged it would help train 2
million laid-off women in the next five years so they could find
new work.
Helping laid-off women will be one of the priority tasks of the
federation's incoming leading group, federation Vice-President Gu
Xiulian told a press conference hosted by the State Council
Information Office.
The federation's new leading group will be elected at the ninth
National Women's Congress of China, which will begin on August 22
and last for five days. The congress is held once every five
years.
Gu said training is important because many women looking for new
work face a major stumbling block due to their relatively limited
occupational skills and academic background.
Official statistics indicate that women made up 49 percent of
the country's 6.81 million people in cities and towns registered as
unemployed.
Since 1998, 2 million women have been employed or re-employed
mainly as a result of the federation's occupational training
programs.
The federation has been working hard in the past five years to
reduce the rate of female illiteracy and school dropouts and to get
more women to attend higher education, Gu said.
For example, women's federation branches at all levels have
collected 300 million yuan (US$36.1 million) in donations from
China and abroad and helped 750,000 girls return to school after
having dropped out.
According to Gu, 43.95 percent of the country's students in
higher education are female, six percentage points higher than the
rate from five years ago. As a consequence, more Chinese
women are assuming important positions in government
departments and businesses.
But the employment problems of women cannot be solved if they
merely compete for existing positions. Therefore, Gu said the
federation will also encourage more women to start their own
business.
For example, she said, the federation will continue with its
small-loan program, which gave out small loans worth a total of 950
million yuan (US$114.5 million) over the past five years and helped
over 2 million women shrug off poverty.
Gu said the federation will fight hard against today's
increasing discrimination against women in the workplace. The
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's
top legislature, is doing some research into this issue and
expected to produce new legislation against it, she said.
(China Daily August 15, 2003)
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