Offering Advice and Suggestions for Women's Employment
ACWF Promoted the Legislation on Women at the 10th NPC and CPPCC
To more ensure Chinese women's rights and interests are not violated, and to ensure improvements of the legislation regarding women's issues are part of the NPC's legislative agenda, ACWF worked hard with women NPC deputies and CPPCC members to give voice to women's opinions and make suggestions for women before and during the first sessions of the 10th NPC and CPPCC.

The Women Members Formulated Legislation Proposals
Some of women NPC standing committee members and CPPCC members met in January 2003 to discuss their motions and proposals for the first sessions of the 10th NPC and CPPCC.
Gu Xiulian, being ACWF Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat at that time, released the survey results regarding implementation in recent years of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and other laws and regulations on women's protection. She also pointed out the problems existing in the protection of women's rights and interests, and brought forward the suggestions of the ACWF for solving these problems.
After much discussion, these women members reached a consensus, and drafted nine proposals.
1. Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women must be amended;
2. Labor protection of women employees in non-public enterprises must be enhanced;
3. Law on the Equality of Employment Opportunities must be established;
4. Proposals promoting female college students' employment must be advocated;
5. Health care during pregnancy and confinement periods must be improved in western, poverty-stricken areas;
6. Measures must be taken to reduce the negative effects of TV on children;
7. Levels of women's participation in politics must be raised and targets of women's participation in politics must be met;
8. Construction of the ACWF's grass-roots organizations must be reinforced; and
9. The principle of gender equality must be included in the Civil Servant Law.

Peng Peiyun Appealed to the 10th NPC to Amend the Law
On March 10, Peng Peiyun, Vice-Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee and ACWF President, put forward her perspectives on guaranteeing women's rights and interests during the 10th NPC's group discussion.
As ACWF President, she is particularly concerned about guaranteeing women's rights and interests. She passed on to the NPC ordinary women's opinions and demands. She also worked hard to win better basic rights for women and participated in inspections to ensure laws are properly executed.
She appealed to NPC representatives to pay attention to women's rights and interests, and particularly to the concerns arising from changing the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. She said the law was issued in 1992. It has played an important role in protecting Chinese women's rights and interests, and in enhancing gender equality. However, it has not adapted to the new demands and situations, and therefore must be amended.
She suggested the following were problems:
It is hard for women to find jobs;
It is hard for women to find jobs after having been laid off;
It is difficult for female college students to find jobs;
Labor protection measures for women employees are weak in many enterprises;
Procreation insurance for female employees is inadequate; and
Women's participation in the management of state and society affairs is still at a low level.
In the interest of better protecting women's rights and interests, and in enhancing women's enthusiasm to participate in political and economic activities, it was suggested that proposed amendments to the law be placed on the agenda of the 10th NPC. The new law will stress important issues concerning women, and will be more mature than the present legislation. It will also strengthen legal duty and supervision.

Sino-Australian Training to Curb the Trafficking Held in Chengdu
A county-level training class for the cooperative project between China and Australia aimed at eradicating the trafficking in women and children was held on April 1 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. It was jointly sponsored by the ACWF and the Australian Committee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities. One hundred people--from women's federations, public security bureaus, labor bureaus, and procuratorates and courts at all levels from Guizhou and Sichuan provinces--participated.
It was one more such cooperation, on this issue, between the Chinese and Australian governments. Since the project began last April, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces have actively tried to curb the problem. They have established leading bodies, carried out investigations to determine people's knowledge about the project's content, and launched large-scale publicity activities in regions where there are floating populations.
The training class lasted four days. During the program, Chinese and foreign experts gave special lectures on relevant situations and countermeasures, the functions of women's federations, social gender, and gender and human rights. Explaining their own practices, trainees participated in ardent discussions with the experts. Participants unanimously agreed the training class helped improve the ability of government leaders, law enforcement officials and working personnel of women's federations at the grass-roots level to fight the crime. They said it also helped promote the establishment of a multi-department cooperative working mechanism in the provinces.

A School for Women Migrants Opened
On April 15, a community-run night school for migrant women was opened by the Sichuan Women's Federation. The school has now more than 200 students. Through helping migrant women in the community improve their level of educational attainment and working skills, renew their ideas and way of thinking and strengthen their understanding of law and awareness of protecting their rights with law, the school aims at enabling them to become the new type women with the spirit of self-respect, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-improvement, honest, responsible, skilful, diligent and staminal.

Aid to Women Victims of Domestic Violence Given in Laoshan
To strengthen the fight against domestic violence and enhance women victims' access to aid, a joint work system, including regulations on service, duty, report and meeting, was established recently in Laoshan District, Qingdao, Shandong Province. Aid cards have been issued in society, which show people the aid hotlines and service programs from five local units--the public security bureau, procuratorate, court, judiciary and women's federation. These measures will play a positive role in better protecting women's rights and interests, and in promoting family and social stability.

Transformation of Rural Women Laborers Effected in Wuxi
To enhance the transformation of rural women labor force and to help rural women increase their incomes and become prosperous, the Wuxi Women's Federation is helping rural women laborers realize a transformation of production. The following are the measures they are undertaking:
1. Stressing training with a clear aim and helping women find suitable work. Nineteen technical training classes have been held, which were attended by 1,300 people;
2. Rearing a new group of capable women in various specific fields through the federation's model bases and projects;
3. Enhancing information exchanges and adopting a market-oriented approach to the situation. Besides opening an on-line job board, the federation is operating a free telephone service to provide women with employment information. Using such resources, they are linking rural women with the labor market and opening up more channels for the transformation of rural women laborers.

Meilie Women Are Helped to Become Prosperous
Three relevant activities have been conducted by the Meilie Women's Federation to help rural women in Sanming City's Meilie District, Fujian Province, shake off poverty and become prosperous:
1. Collecting donations for the construction of methane-generating pits.
Besides distributing more than 1,000 copies of the written proposals, the federation used various other methods to let people know the construction of methane-generating pits would improve the area's ecological environment and living conditions, and subsequently would benefit the people and the state. Thanks to donations from some units and warm-hearted people, methane-generating pits have been built for some destitute family members of active servicemen or martyrs, disabled people and impoverished families.
2. Carrying out the Spring Bud Program.
Throughout the district, the federation raised public awareness with slogans such as "Holding out your friendly hands and caring for the Spring Bud Program" and "Assisting today's girls helps tomorrow's mothers." They also mobilized people from all circles by sponsoring grand donation ceremonies, organizing visits to the girl beneficiaries of the Spring Bud Program and conducting the Hand in Hand Between Urban and Rural Children Project. In all, 246,000 yuan was collected and 187 girls were partnered with urbanites in the mutual help project. Of the girl beneficiaries, two have enrolled in colleges and 13 in secondary technical schools.
3. Conducting micro-credit work.
The federation distributed the 250,000 yuan fund to 125 impoverished women in two townships to help them develop fruit-tree-planting, vegetable-planting and poultry-breeding projects by micro-credit loans. At the same time, they helped those women search for information and choose suitably.

Prominent Changes Take Place in Women's Employment of Suzhou
Some obvious changes have occurred in recent years in women's employment in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Those changes include:
1. Employment reached a higher level. The proportion of women among the province's professional technical personnel has increased to 35.7 percent in 2001.
2. The employment structure is becoming reasonable. In 2001, the number of employees in urban units reached 765,000, among whom 335,000, or 43.78 percent, were women. The proportions of women employed in the primary, secondary and tertiary industries were 37.5 percent, 45.8 percent and 41.6 percent, respectively. The transformation of women's employment from state-owned and collective-owned enterprises to the private sector is proceeding orderly.
3. Women have displayed obvious competitive advantages in some trades. The number of women employees has been increasing constantly in the fields of education, public health, art and literature, broadcasting and television, finance and insurance.
4. Women have more initiative in getting employment. They don't rely on governmental arrangements any more, but seek for employment in various ways, including self-employment.
5. The reemployment drive has achieved prominent results. Labor departments' statistics indicate 67,000 unemployed people were reemployed last year in the city. Of those, 30,000, or 45 percent, were women. Meanwhile, 16,000 laid-off workers were reemployed. More than 7,000 of those people, or 44 percent, were women.

Special Lecture Held for Police Officers in Beijing's Dongcheng District
The Dongcheng Women's Federation of Beijing and the district's politics and law committee jointly held on March 26 a special lecture entitled "Awareness of Social Gender and Multi-Organization Cooperation." More than 180 police officers attended.
Starting with the concept of social gender, Professor Rong Weiyi from the University of Chinese People's Public Security, explained the socialization of social gender and the operating mechanism of social gender. Rong also analyzed the mistaken ideas which have existed in present society about the protection of women's rights. He also said government should take the lead in protecting women's rights, and that departments should better cooperate and coordinate efforts to protect women. The lecture was well received.

Men Legal Workers Work at Protecting Women's Rights in Jiaxing
The Jiaxing Women's Federation, in Jiangsu Province, sponsored on March 21 a legal adviser symposium to discuss the protection of women's rights. The federation's leaders presented letters of appointment to 12 newly engaged legal advisers, and also introduced the current status of the network to protect women's rights.
In recent years, the Jiaxing Women's Federation has increased social cooperation and coordination in the work of protecting women's rights, established the collegiate bench for the protection of women's rights and organized a team of legal advisers. To further perfect the socialized network for the protection of women's rights, the federation established last year, with the assistance of local public security departments, the first "110" relief center against domestic violence. The federation also established the "12348" hotline and launched a radio service hotline.
This year, for the first time, the federation invited men to be legal advisers. Their basic responsibilities include monthly reception of visitors, participating in publicity and consultation activities in communities and rural areas, investigating and studying problems regarding the protection of women's rights, discussing and analyzing major cases and providing details of typical cases.

The Committee Advocates Gender Equality Among Leaders in Jiangsu
To improve leaders' sense of responsibility, and to create a good social environment for women's progress, the Jiangsu Working Committee on Children and Women enhanced gender- equality awareness efforts with the following methods:
1. Gender-equality education programs were implemented. Lectures on the national gender-equality policy were presented to leaders in Jiangsu. The committee expects 90 percent of the leaders will receive the training within three years.
2. The traditional mail system was used to promote the nation's gender-equality policy. During this year's March 8, the committee sent letters to leaders stressing the various experiences gained while promoting and carrying out the gender-equality policy. Those experiences included reinforcing the leading functions of leaders at all levels; realizing gender awareness in decision making; creating a favorable social environment for women's progress; and paying attention to real issues and solving problems affecting women's progress.
3. A questionnaire was prepared and distributed to determine leaders' understanding of the nation's gender-equality policy. The questionnaire dealt with numerous issues, including the various barriers and problems and viewpoints about women's current status.
4. A reward for the fact of gender equality was set to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the nation's gender-equality policy.

More Women Become Self-Employed in Shanghai
In 1990, just one woman in 1,000 chose to become self-employed. Ten years later, six or seven women out of 100 chose to become self-employed.
A survey indicates the number of women joining the ranks of the self-employed increased from 0.1 percent in 1990 to 6.6 percent in 2000. More women than men are becoming their own bosses. Professor Yu Yaping, with Shanghai Jiaotong University, said society's development has helped make women's career and industry structures more rational. By 2001, more than 50 percent of the workers in the education and culture, health and sport, retail business and community service sectors were women. More women today work in the finance and insurance, real estate and science service sectors. The proportions of women in these sectors have climbed to 44.63 percent, 36.22 percent and 35.47 percent respectively. And many of them have become stock analysts, real estate brokers and scientists.
There are 8,000 non-regular companies in Shanghai, of which 34 percent are run by women. A survey conducted in the city indicates: 52 percent of women work for high incomes; 33.7 percent, to gain economic independence; and 21.3 percent, to fully use their talent. Some 20.3 percent of women received their jobs through the application-interview process.

Groups Support the Efforts to Combat Women's Diseases in Shanghai
A plan to fight women's diseases has been developed and implemented by the women workers' committee of the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions and the Shanghai Workers' Mutual Aid Society.
Incidents of women's diseases have increased in recent years in Shanghai. A survey by the women workers' committee indicates cancer accounts for more than 80 percent of the serious illnesses suffered by Shanghai's workers. Meanwhile, cancer specific to women--such as cervical and/or breast cancer--accounts for 57.5 percent of the cancer women suffer from.
The plan provides greater medical protection to all working women in Shanghai who are younger than 55, and who have applied for the benefits through their work units. During a three-year period, a woman who is diagnosed as having either breast cancer or cancer in her reproductive organs can apply under the program for medical benefits of 10,000 yuan and mutual aid of 5,000 yuan. If the woman is hospitalized within the first 90 days of the period, she can also apply for sympathy money, which ranges from 500-2,000 yuan.

Man Deputy Seeks Childbirth Insurance in Guangdong
A motion to legislate birth insurance, put forward by a man deputy, was a hot topic earlier this year during the 10th Guangdong People's Congress.
Chen Weiping suggested the state should extend the 90-day maternity leave to 120 days so new mothers have more time to care fore and breast-feed their babies. Chen argued the length of the maternity leave directly affects the health of mothers and their babies. He said China's maternity leave policy should meet the Wolrd Health Organization's recommendation that monthers breast-feed their babies for the first four months after giving birth.
Chen also suggested women who give birth later than their due date should receive an additional 30 days of maternity leave. Also, he argued husbands should receive one month of leave to help their wives.
Without such legislation, some companies infringe upon women's rights and interests when they are pregnant, take their maternity leave or nurse their babies.
Chen Weiping enjoyed much support from other deputies. Lin Huisu, director of the Guangdong Women's Federation, said the federation often receives appeals from women. Chen's suggestions, she argued, promoted the protection of women's rights and interests in Guangdong.