Women are now the backbone of Beijing's economy as well as many other parts of society, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.

In the capital's primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, women account for 39.4, 26.4, and 39.4 percent respectively of total employees.

Women also play an important role in municipal and other government organizations. Currently, 16.7 percent of bureau-level officials in Beijing are women.

The newspaper also said the income of women in rural areas has increased greatly. There are 277 rural women whose assets are individually estimated at 1 million yuan (US$120,000) or more.

At the 11th session of the Beijing Women's Representative Conference which opened on Saturday and ended Monday, nearly 90 percent of the 600 women representatives had at least a college education.

(China Daily August 12, 2003)