In commemoration of the 45th United Nations International Working Women’s Day, it is particularly worth recalling the tremendous changes that Chinese women have experienced in the past 70 years.
Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the history of oppression and slavery on women, which had lasted for thousands of years, has ended. Women became their own masters and are now a part of the new China.
The concept of equality between men and women is deeply rooted in the hearts of women. Women, especially girls, receive equal education, which contributes a large number of educated women workers to Chinese society. This is the secret to the success of China’s growth and socialist reconstruction, and to its reform and opening-up in particular.
The women of my grandmother’s generation were born in the first decade of the 20th century. At that time, women had no social status, and basically did not go to school or even become literate. Girls from poor families were sold as daughters-in-law, often turning into child workers in their new households. Girls were asked to wrap their feet when they were five or six years old. This also prevented them from going out to school and work.
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The generation of my mother was born in the 1940s. After the founding of New China in 1949, polygamy, child marriage and foot-binding were abolished. Women participated in literacy campaigns and girls could go to school.
Chairman Mao once said: “Women can hold up half of the sky.”
Photo: Jimmie/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Today, women in New China take pride in participating in work of various fields. They are no longer just housewives but professional women.
My mother is a medical worker trained in New China. I was born in Shanghai in the late 1960s. In my memory, I never felt that girls should be lower than boys. In school, my grades and performance were better than boys most of the time, so I was elected as the class monitor and chairman of the students’ union, and received good education all through till I obtained my PhD degree.
As I moved forward in my career, I was selected based more on my talent and merit rather than my gender.
I became a university teacher, a female diplomat, and a female researcher, something that was really difficult to imagine before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
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My daughter was born in Beijing in the 1990s. It has become normal now for girls to receive formal school education. My daughter now has the opportunity to receive extra-curricular talent training, such as playing the piano, singing, and kickboxing.
My daughter’s middle school classmates are almost all musically talented. They even formed a small band!
Despite their tight academic schedule, they sing and play their favourite music after school. In my opinion, today’s Chinese girls’ education is no longer limited to literacy and enrolment in school. There is more emphasis upon the nurture of potential for comprehensive human development of individuals.
Photo: Jonathan van Smit/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Chinese girls in the new era fully enjoy the fruits and opportunities brought by China’s reform and opening-up, and will be more creative and innovative in the future.
The experience of four generations of women in my family is witness to the historical process of New China’s continuous improvement of women’s education by granting equal educational rights to men and women.
According to statistics released by the State Council Information Office in September, 2019, titled ‘Equality, Development and Sharing: Women’s Development and Progress in the 70 Years of New China,’ the illiteracy rate of women was much higher than that of men at the beginning of the founding of New China.
Three literacy campaigns have been carried out to help 16 million women become literate in the 1950s. After the reforms and opening up of the economy, China continued to carry out literacy work.
By 1993, illiteracy had been eliminated among 110 million Chinese women. The illiteracy rate of the female population aged 15 and over, nationwide, fell from 90% before the founding of New China to 7.3% in 2017. This has basically bridged the gender divide in education.
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In 2017, the net enrolment rate of girls in primary schools reached 99.9%, exactly the same as that of boys. The proportion of girls in ordinary junior high schools was 46.4%, an increase of 20.8 percentage points from 1951.
Women’s admission of high school and higher education has reached record highs. In 2017, the proportion of female students in ordinary high schools has reached 50.9%, and the proportion of female students in ordinary colleges and universities has reached 52.5%, an increase of 32.7 percentage points from 1949.
New China’s basic national policy of equality between men and women has provided women with educational opportunities.
At the same time, women have also become an important driving force for China’s social development. In 1949, illiteracy in China accounted for 80% of the population and per capita GDP at that time was only more than $ 20 (US). China’s per capita GDP in 2019 exceeded US $ 10,000, and the school enrolment rate for girls was close to 100%.
Photo: Stanley Zimny/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
The improvement of women’s education in New China has provided a large number of high-quality labourers for the country’s construction. As of the end of 2017, China had 340 million working women, which is more than the total population of the United States in 2019. I believe one of the reasons New China became the world’s second largest economy in just 70 years attributes to the hard work and dedication of all working Chinese women.
At present, 50% of doctors and 90% nurses at the frontier of China fight against coronavirus are women. That has thrown up multiple challenges because of the risk of infection — so far, eight female doctors and nurses have died at their working sites.
Dr. Li Lanjuan, a female academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who is in her seventies, has led a team to go to Wuhan to treat critically ill patients. Chinese women medical staff with lofty professionalism play an important role in the hard struggle against the virus, together with men.
Throughout history, without the liberation and progress of women, there can be no human liberation and progress. The empowerment and development of Chinese women is the result of the social reform and revolution of the Communist Party of China, and meanwhile it is a powerful driving force behind the growth of New China.
Dr. Bao Jiqing is Research Fellow, Center of South Asia Studies, Institute of International Relations, Tsinghua University. She is the wife of the Chinese ambassador to India. Views are personal.