An increasing number of women of various ethnic groups in Yunnan Province, southwest China, are playing an important role in social affairs.
One example is that the election of village heads held across the province recently attracted a great number of women candidates.
Statistics show that in the elections in 13,498 administrative villages, a total of 18,166 women were elected members of the village affairs’ committees or the village committees of the Communist Party of China.
According to the Provincial Women’s Federation, women officials now account for more than one-third of all the province’s officials.
Over the past five years, Yunnan has adopted a series of policies and regulations on women development and protection of the legitimate rights and interests of women and children.
Women in the province now have more chances to study and work.
According to statistics, at present, 98.91 percent of the province’s girls of school age are studying at schools, women account for nearly 50 percent of the university students on campus and 37 percent of graduate students.
Each year, the province eliminates illiteracy among 200,000 young illiterate women and large groups of women participate in various training classes.
Women now account for more than one-third of the total workers in the agricultural, industrial and tertiary sectors, respectively.
( Xinhua News Agency 09/18/2001)
