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Thursday, March 9, 2000
 
Women losers in reforms


Published in the South China Morning Post.  Copyright  ©2000.  All rights reserved.

Not their day: a group of women, out of work after reforms to state-owned enterprises, wait for prospective employers at a job centre in Shanghai. Agence France-Presse photo

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing
China's women have been bearing more than half the burden created by the reform of state-owned enterprises, state media reported yesterday.

Urban women account for more than half the country's laid-off workers, expected to rise by five million this year, the China Daily said, as the world marked International Women's Day.

"Local branches of the [All China Women's] Federation have organised training courses for these women in an effort to help them land new jobs," the report said.

Official figures, believed by many economists to be conservative, show 11.9 million people have lost their jobs since major reforms to state firms began in late 1997, with 6.5 million of the laid-off workers remaining unemployed at the end of last year.

The Communist Party prides itself on having improved the social status of women since it came to power. Former leader Mao Zedong declared that "women hold up half the sky" and eradicated such traditional practices as foot-binding.

But as in most other countries, women are conspicuous by their absence from China's policy-making core, with all seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee being men.

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Published in the South China Morning Post. Copyright ©2000. All rights reserved.