China

When it comes to political participation, Chinese women have made great progress during the past decades.

In 2013, women accounted for 23.4 percent of the deputies who attended the 12th NPC (National People's Congress), and 17.6 percent of the members who attended the National Committee of the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference). In 2012, women accounted for 23 percent of the delegates to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Each percentage set a record.

She is often called the “Iron Lady” of Hong Kong. Anson Chan earned respect serving as Hong Kong’s second-highest official when the British were in charge. And when the colony was handed back to China in 1997, Beijing enlisted Chan to help with that transition.

A senior official of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) pledged on Monday to improve awareness of gender equality among the country's policy makers.

Song Xiuyan, federation vice president, told a national congress that the body will work to incorporate education of gender equality into training programs for Party and government officials, including those at Party schools.

"We expect to improve the awareness of gender equality among public policy makers," she said, at the 11th National Women's Congress which opened here Monday morning.

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has kick-started Beijing+20, a process to assess how far Member States and other stakeholders have come in implementing the commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995. This action was part of a resolution on the future organization and methods of work proposed by the Commission on the Status of Women which ECOSOC adopted today. 

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing annual session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) has given Shen Jilan, 84, a chance to consolidate her position as one of the world's most venerable political figures.

With her 59 years as an NPC deputy, she even trumps the congressional career of the late Robert C. Byrd, who served 51 years as a U.S. senator. Shen is the only deputy serving all 12 terms of the NPC.

Despite the fact that Fu Ying, vice minister of foreign affairs, recently became China's first female spokesperson for the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), Chinese women’s political participation still lags behind. Out of the 2,987 NPC deputies, only 699 are women, putting the ratio out of proportion to China’s sex ratio at birth.