NBC News looks at the gender divide among China’s political elite:
An initial glance at some facts and figures appears to underscore significant progress in gender equality—at least in the government sphere.
Women today in China account for forty per cent of government officials, compared to below 33 per cent in 1995—which incidentally was the when the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing.
21.3 per cent of NPC delegates in 2008 were women (the latest available data, according to the All China Women’s Federation). In 1954, that figure was just twelve per cent.
Impressive. But consider that the female proportion of NPC delegates has not significantly changed since virtually the early 1970s, stuck around 21 per cent all this time.
Women are even less well represented in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), making up fewer than eighteen per cent of the NPC’s main advisory body.
Read more about women in politics via CDT.
