第三篇 Passage 3

During the past 50 years since the founding of New China, China has witnessed a big improvement in the status of its women citizens. A series of laws and regulations, including the Labor Law and the Law on Safeguarding Women’s Rights and Interests, are on the statute book to ensure women's social and economic rights.

Chinese women are given equal rights with men in employment. According to the 1995 national population census, there were some 320 million women employees working in all sectors. Among them, those working in agriculture accounted for 39 per cent of the total employees in the sector, those working in manufacturing industry accounted for 30 per cent and those in tertiary industry 39 per cent.

Based on these figures, Chinese women generated a gross domestic product (GDP) of around 3397 billion yuan (US$411 billion), accounting for 38 percent of the country’s total in 1995.

By the end of 1999, the number of Chinese women employees in urban and rural areas had reached 330 million, accounting for 46.7 per cent of the country’s total number of employees and 12 per cent higher than the world’s average women employment rate.

In terms of employment fields, women have shifted to a great extent from traditional industries to tertiary industries including finance, insurance, education, art and culture, healthcare, social welfare and community service.

At present, more and more women are working in overseas-funded enterprises and export-oriented businesses.

In Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen, Dalian, Tianjin and other special economic zones and high-tech zones, women employees account for 70 percent of the total.

A survey held among the 75 overseas-funded enterprises in Suzhou this year indicates that there are more than 20,000 women employees, making up more than 65 percent of the total. And these women employees are mainly working in fields like electronics, telecommunications, machinery and other industries.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of women are taking part in politics. Today, there are four women State leaders and 21 women ministers and vice-ministers in China. There are also 45 women leaders at provincial level and more than 500 women mayors.

At the same time, the gap in educational backgrounds between men and women is shortening. In 1998, Chinese women received 6.5 years of education on average and the difference between men and women declined from 1.7 years in 1995 to 1.5 years in 1998. At present, women occupy 40 per cent of the total student number in colleges and universities. They make up 45.9 percent and 47.6 per cent in ordinary high schools and primary schools respectively. By the end of 1999, there had been 70 women academicians in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, accounting for six per cent of the total------higher than the world’s average.

The enhancement of women’s working skills has made women more competitive and helpful in the country’s economic and social development.