Study: Gender inequality serious in rural areas
By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-08 05:41

Gender inequality still exists in China, especially in poverty-stricken rural areas, a recent national study on gender assessment learned.

Professor Li Xiaoyun of the College of Humanities and Development at China Agricultural University said on Tuesday that although the status of Chinese women has improved greatly in the past two decades, gender inequality still commonly exists in almost all social aspects including political power, education, health, employment and assets possession. Li made the comments in Beijing at a workshop on gender and poverty in China.

A study group led by Li earlier this year surveyed 10 villages in the poorest rural areas including Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi and Jiangxi provinces, as well as the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

"In poverty-stricken areas, men and women are quite unequal in political rights," Li said. "Women are less involved in villager autonomy elections and account for a very low percentage of the village committee.

"Some male villagers think women cannot be leaders because of their weak thinking capacity and physical condition. More important is that women were not nominated in the election process."

As women have participated little in decision making, with only 12.5 per cent of rural cadres being women, few women have received training and benefits from village- level poverty reduction programmes, the study found.

Jointly funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the study is part of a one-year study on gender assessment in China that was launched in October last year.