Companies that value their female employees tend to perform better financially, according to a recent appraisal by UN Women and Zhaopin, an online recruitment platform in Beijing.

The appraisal showed that companies who had received its best employers for female workers award saw an average year-on-year rise in profit of 28.45 percent, compared with 14.32 percent for those that did not.

The appraisal aims to identify enterprises that support gender quality, equal pay for equal work and empowering the development of female employees.

Ten companies received the designation, including IBM, China Guangfa Bank and China Southern Airlines. Those companies show respect to female workers and also have taken steps to empower them and provide them with a supportive working environment, the appraisal said.

For example, they offer paid maternity leave for female workers ranging from 98 days to 184 days. They also provide facilities such as baby care rooms.

Empowering female employees and nurturing their development can have economic benefits.

A report released by the McKinsey Global Institute in April last year said promoting gender equality could bring economic growth of $4.5 billion to the Asia-Pacific region by 2025. Along those lines, China could see a benefit of $2.6 billion.

However, there is still a long way to go in gender equality in Chinese workplaces.

In March, Zhaopin and UN Women released a report focusing on female workers showing that they still generally endure unfair treatment. For example, salaries for male workers are on average 23 percent higher than those of their female counterparts, and men comprise about 81.3 percent of management staff.