Equality, Development and Sharing: Progress of Women's Cause in 70 Years Since New China's Founding
Rural women's enthusiasm to take part in production is boosted by guaranteeing their equal land rights. China has always guaranteed women's rights by laws and legislation, which has been demonstrated in such practices as land reform, the household responsibility system, the verification, registration and certification of land contract and management rights and the separation of rights to ownership, contract, and management. Since 2014, it has been clearly ruled that women's rights and interests in relation to land must be given expression in the registration book and land right certificate. Now they have their names written in the certificates and obtained corresponding rights. In 2018, the revised law on contracting rural land stipulates that each household member has equal access to benefits from contracting land and women's rights to contracting and operating land should be guaranteed. In 2016, the Guidelines on Reforming the Rural Collective Property Rights System issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council clearly stated that rural women's legitimate rights should be effectively protected. In 2018, seven departments including the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, All-China Women's Federation jointly issued guidelines, urging rural communities to correct any village regulations and folk conventions that are in conflict with statutory regulations and the principle of gender equality. Rural women's land rights and economic interests have been effectively protected and they are working for rural revitalization and modernization.
Women workers are motivated to perform better by enhancing labor protection. China attaches great importance to safeguarding female employees' rights through laws and regulations. From the Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Staff and Workers in 1988 to the Special Rules on the Labor Protection of Female Employees in 2012, protection for women workers have increasingly improved. A growing number of enterprises and companies have given due protection to their female staffers at work, with 71.2% of the enterprises providing labor protections for women workers in 2017, up 35.2 percentage points from 2002. By September 2017, a total of 1.366 million special collective contracts have been signed to protect female employees' rights, benefiting nearly 80 million women workers. Up to 300,000 trade unions in community-level enterprises and public institutions have set up staff-only resting and nursing lounges, serving 18.494 million women. China published the Manual of Guidance on Promoting Workplace Gender Equality to oblige employers nationwide to abide by relevant laws and regulations to ensure female workers' legitimate rights and special interests. Such protection measures and efforts have created conditions for women to partake in socio-economic development. Women workers in various sectors, with a high sense of responsibility and historical mission, are playing an increasingly bigger role in promoting China's economic and social development.
