Full Text: Equality, Development and Sharing: Progress of Women's Cause in 70 Years Since New China's Founding

V. Women's Education Level Has Risen Significantly

China endows men and women with equal rights to education by formulating and implementing laws and regulations. By upholding the policy of prioritizing education and developing education for the benefit of people, narrowing the education gap between urban and rural areas, actively promoting fairness in education, women's education status has been gradually improved, with their education level greatly lifted.

The drive to eliminate female illiteracy has achieved a remarkable progress. The illiteracy rate for women was much higher than that for men when New China was founded. At the first national education conference held in 1949, a campaign was launched to promote literacy and eradicate illiteracy nationwide. In 1956, China promulgated the Decision to Eradicate Illiteracy, reaffirming the goal of illiteracy eradication. The three illiteracy eradication campaigns in 1950s helped over 16 million women become literate. Since the reform and opening up, China has continued to carry out campaigns to eradicate illiteracy, helping a total of 110 million women become literate by 1993. Since 1995, the government has promulgated and implemented Chinese women's development outlines covering three different periods, all of which put the eradication of female illiteracy and improvement of female literacy as a major goal and regard the eradication of illiteracy among rural women as a key issue. The illiteracy rate among females aged 15 and above dropped from 90% in 1949 to 7.3% in 2017, which was a historic change.

The gender gap in the nine-year compulsory education has been basically eliminated. On the basis of eradicating female illiteracy, China attaches great importance to guaranteeing the rights and opportunities for girls to receive basic education, having formulated and issued such laws and policies as the Compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China to continuously increase investments in compulsory education, giving preferential treatment to rural areas. By offering grants to students in primary and secondary schools, rolling out special support policies for girls, implementing aid projects including the Spring Bud Project and the Project Hope, the country has significantly expanded the opportunities for rural girls to receive education. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, great effort has been made to integrate compulsory education in both urban and rural areas, having overcome the weaknesses in rural compulsory education and created even more opportunities for rural girls to receive education. In 2017, the net primary school enrollment rates of boys and girls were both 99.9%; the proportion of girls in regular primary schools and regular junior high schools was 46.5% and 46.4% respectively, 18.5 and 20.8 percentage points higher than those in 1951 respectively. Gender equality in compulsory education has been basically achieved.

The rate of women enjoying high school and higher education has reached a record high. China attaches great importance to the development of education, with the opportunities for women to enjoy high school and higher education on a steady rise. In the past four decades since the reform and opening up, the country has made a vigorous effort to popularize high school education, giving more assistance to poor areas in central and western China and offering grants to students from impoverished families. As a result, opportunities for girls to receive high school education have remarkably increased. In 2017, the gross high school enrollment rate was 88.3%, with girls accounting for 47.7% of all students in high schools, and 50.9% of students in regular high schools were females. The Higher Education Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated in 1998 created conditions for more females to enjoy higher education by expanding the scale of higher education, promoting educational loan system, and offering students grants and scholarships. Women accounted for 52.5% of students in regular institutions of higher education, 28.4 percentage points higher than in 1978, 32.7 percentage points higher than in 1949 (see Chart 4); women accounted for 48.4% of postgraduate students, 29.8 percentage points higher than in 1985.

The number of women receiving vocational education and continued education has witnessed a marked increase. China has continuously worked to perfect laws and policies regarding vocational education, and gradually established and improved the vocational education system, which have increased the opportunities for women to receive vocational education. The Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated in 1996 states that the country takes measures to help women receive vocational education. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has attached more importance to the development of vocational education. The National Implementation Plan for Vocational Education Reform and the Special Implementation Plan for the Expansion of Enrollment by Higher Vocational Schools promulgated in 2019 expanded the scale of enrollment for higher vocational education, promoted the modernization of vocational education, and provided new opportunities for women to receive vocational education. In 2017, women accounted for 42.9% of students in secondary vocational schools. Over the past four decades since the reform and opening up, continued education has witnessed remarkable progress and has become an important channel for women to acquire knowledge, gain skills and improve their qualities. The number and proportion of women participating in higher continued education have both increased year by year. In 2017, women accounted for 58.8% of students in institutes for continued education, 27.3 percentage points higher than in 1988; 47.3% of students attending online higher continued education were women. Besides, women are widely attending non-degree education at all levels and of all categories.

Efforts to ensure girls equally enjoy preschool education have proved effective. When New China was founded, kindergartens were built by institutional units, industrial and mining enterprises, neighborhoods and communes. In 1992, the State Council promulgated the Planning Outline for Development of Chinese Children in 1990s, which stipulates that the kindergarten enrollment rate for children aged 3-6 should reach 35%. Since 2011, China has implemented three three-year action plans for preschool education in a row, solving the difficulty of getting enrolled in kindergartens. China National Program for Women's Development (2011-2020) stipulates that the gross enrollment rate of preschool education should reach 70% and that girls enjoy equal preschool education. The document, Multiple Opinions on Deepening Reform and Standardizing Development of Preschool Education, issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in 2018 calls for the popularization as well as safe and quality development of preschool education for the benefit of all. In 2017, the gross kindergarten enrollment rate for children aged 3-6 was 79.6%. The number of children receiving preschool education reached 46 million, with girls accounting for 46.7%.