史志祥：上海市外语口译岗位资格证书在南京的第一批推广者和授课者，翻译学硕士，口译辅导第一人，恩波学校口译辅导教学总监。有十几年的口译、笔译工作经历，近十年来一直从事笔译、口译教学和研究工作，已辅导学员五千人，他辅导的中级班及格率超过73%，高级班及格率超过46%，远远高于上海市平均及格率。其授课内容新，信息量大，紧扣考试动态，其独创的“史氏口译口诀”更为广大学员交相传诵。

Contents

Foreword
Chapter I. Historic Liberation of Chinese Women
Chapter II. Equal Legal Status
Chapter III. Equal Rights and Important Role in Economic Sphere
Chapter IV. Extensive Participation in Administration of State and Social Affairs
Chapter V. Full Advance in Society
Chapter VI. Equal Status in Marriage and Family Life
Chapter VII. Organizational Guarantees of the Rights and Interests of Chinese Women
Chapter VIII. Active Participation in International Women's Activities
 
Information Office of the State Council Of the People's Republic of China
June 1994, Beijing

目　录
   
前言 :
一、 中国妇女的历史性解放
二、 平等的法律地位
三、 在经济领域中的平等权利与重要作用 
四、 广泛参与国家和社会事务的管理
五、 在社会生活领域中充分发展
六、 婚姻家庭领域中的平等地位
七、 中国妇女权益的组织保障
八、 积极参与国际妇女活动
   
中华人民共和国国务院新闻办公室

一九九四年六月-北京 

Foreword
In March 1992, the United Nations decided to hold in 1995 the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the capital of China. This has aroused greater world attention on the status of Chinese women.

In the feudal society which lasted several millennia and the subsequent century of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, Chinese women experienced a bitter history of prolonged oppression, degradation and abasement. From the first half of this century, masses of women plunged into an undaunted and heroic struggle lasting several decades under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. This was a quest for national liberation and their own emancipation. It was not until the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 that Chinese women, who make up one-fourth of their sex in the world, finally won their historic freedom.

New China proclaimed that Chinese women enjoy equal rights with men in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social and family life and that they have become, like all Chinese citizens, masters of the state and society. Chinese laws guarantee that women and men enjoy the same rights and status and have equal personal dignity. The Chinese government employs legal, administrative and educational means to eliminate all kinds of discrimination against women and protect their special rights and interests. Today, as an important token of civilization and progress, Chinese women enjoy the equal rights which had remained unattainable in Chinese society over millennia and which only became accepted in many developed countries after some centuries.

Under the socialist system, the once-stifled wisdom and talents of Chinese women have been released to a great extent. Women are actively plunging into China's social development as masters of society, becoming a great force in both economic construction and cultural and ideological advances. They are a vital force in China's reform and opening to the outside world and the modernization drive. Women have made extremely important contributions in various undertakings, including industrial and agricultural production, science, culture, education and health care. In China, the expression "women hold up half the sky" has become the most vivid expression the entire society uses to praise the role played by women.

While women's impetus for social development has been forming, great changes have taken place in their mental outlook. They have gained a sense of self-respect, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-strengthening and have taken long strides forward in their ability to participate in government and political affairs, in their cultural accomplishment, level of scientific knowledge and production skills.

Chinese women have a glorious peace-loving tradition. They have never forgotten the calamities caused by aggressive wars and rendered resolute support for the peaceful foreign policies adopted by the Chinese government. No matter what clashes might break out in the world, they always stand on the side of justice and the victims of aggression and oppose violence and aggression. Chinese women are an important force in safeguarding world peace.

Over the past 45 years, especially in the 15 years since the introduction of reform and opening to the outside world, Chinese women have achieved truly historic advances toward the goal of "equality, development and peace". This great forward march is an important component of the progressive cause of women worldwide; it is also an important part of the progress China has made in human rights.

China is a developing country. Owing to the constraints of social development and the influence of old concepts, the condition of Chinese women is still not wholly satisfactory. There exist various difficulties and resistance which have prevented the full realization of equal rights to women with respect to their participation in political and government affairs, employment, access to education, as well as marriage and family. Instances of looking down upon and discrimination against women and even infringement of their rights still occur from time to time. On the other hand, the overall competence of women remains to be further enhanced. All these account for the fact that the road toward emancipation and progress for Chinese women has not reached its end. The Chinese government is making every effort to develop the economy, strengthen the legal system, eradicate all backward ideas of discriminating against and looking down on women and promote equal rights for men and women in all spheres of social life as stipulated in Chinese law. This will speed the realization of the various development goals of the Nairobi Strategies in China before the end of this century.

The Chinese government, Chinese women and Chinese people as a whole warmly welcome the convocation of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. They are going all out to make comprehensive preparations for the congress. To enable the international community to acquire a better understanding of the condition of women in the host country, we have prepared this report for release to the world.

前　言
　　1992年3月，联合国决定第四次世界妇女大会于1995年在中国首都北京召开，这使中国妇女的状况倍受世界关注。
　　在几千年的封建社会和百余年的半殖民地半封建社会中，中国妇女曾经有过长期受压迫、受屈辱、受摧残的悲惨历史。从本世纪上半叶起，广大妇女在中国共产党的领导下，为了民族和自身的解放，经过几十年不屈不挠的英勇奋斗，直到中华人民共和国成立，占全世界妇女四分之一的中国妇女终于获得了历史性的解放。
　　新中国宣告了中国妇女在政治、经济、文化、社会和家庭生活等各方面均享有与男子平等的权利，她们和全体中国公民一样成为国家与社会的主人。中国的各种法律保障妇女与男子具有同等的权利和地位，具有同等的人格和尊严。中国政府运用法律的、行政的和教育的手段消除对妇女的各种歧视，保护妇女的特殊权益。今天，中国妇女已享有中国社会几千年来从未达到、许多发达国家历时数百年方才得到承认的平等权利。
　　在社会主义制度下，中国妇女曾被禁锢的聪明才智极大地释放出来。她们以主人翁的姿态积极地投身于中国的建设和发展，成为创造物质文明和精神文明的伟大力量。她们是中国改革开放和现代化建设的生力军，在工农业生产、科学、文化、教育、卫生等各项事业中作出了极其重要的贡献。在中国，“半边天”成为全社会对妇女作用最形象的赞誉。
　　在推动社会发展的同时，中国妇女的精神面貌发生了重大变化，她们自尊、自信、自立、自强，在参政能力、文化水平、科学知识、生产技能等各方面都有了长足的进步。
　　中国妇女有着热爱和平的光荣传统。她们从未忘记侵略战争带来的深重灾难，坚决支持中国政府的和平外交政策。无论世界上发生什么样的冲突，她们总是站在正义与被侵略者一边，反对暴力与侵略。中国妇女是维护世界和平的重要力量。
　　建国四十五年来，特别是改革开放十五年来，中国妇女在“平等、发展、和平”的方向上取得了历史性的伟大进步。这是世界妇女进步事业的重要组成部分，也是中国人权进步的重要组成部分。
　　中国是一个发展中国家，受社会发展水平的制约和旧观念的影响，中国妇女的状况还有不尽如人意的地方，在现实生活中，妇女的参政、就业、受教育以及婚姻家庭中平等权利的完全实现，还存在着各种困难和阻力，轻视、歧视甚至侵害妇女的现象还时有发生，妇女的整体素质也有待于进一步提高。因此，中国妇女解放和发展的道路远没有完结。中国政府正在致力于发展经济，加强法制，消除一切歧视或轻视妇女的落后观念，促进中国法律赋予的男女平等权利在社会生活中全面实现，争取本世纪在中国实现《内罗毕战略》的各项发展目标。
　　中国政府、中国妇女和全体中国人民热情地欢迎第四次世界妇女大会在北京召开，正在全力以赴地为会议做好各项准备工作。为使国际社会更好地了解东道国的妇女情况，现将中国妇女的状况公诸于世界。

In semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China, women were for a long time kept at the bottom of society. It was not until the first half of this century that the Chinese Communist Party led the Chinese people to wage a great and profound national democratic revolution on this ancient land. At the same time, a large-scale women's emancipation movement was launched, resulting in the historic liberation of Chinese women which won worldwide attention.

The impact of the several millennia of oppression and devastation imposed by the feudal patriarchal system on Chinese women was exceptionally grave. In political, economic, cultural, social and family life, women were considered inferior to men. This was profoundly manifested in the following ways:

Possessing no political rights, women were completely excluded from social and political life. Economically dependent, women were robbed of property and inheritance rights and possessed no independent source of income. Having no social status, women were forced to obey their fathers before marriage, their husbands after marriage and their sons if they became widowed. They had no personal dignity or independent status, and were deprived of the right to receive an education and take part in social activities. They enjoyed no freedom in marriage but had to obey the dictates of their parents and heed the words of matchmakers, and were not allowed to remarry if their spouse died. They were subjected to physical and mental torture, being harassed by systems of polygamy and prostitution, the overwhelming majority of them forced to bind their feet from childhood. For centuries, "women with bound feet" was a synonym for the female gender in China.

The successive invasions by the Western powers after the Opium War in 1840 aggravated the plight of Chinese women. In the full-scale war of aggression launched by Japan against China from 1937 on, most of the over 30 million Chinese who were brutally killed were women and children. Within a month after the Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, they committed over 20,000 rapes. The cruel oppression and exploitation of the Chinese people by imperialist and feudalist forces as well as bureaucratic capitalism pushed China to the brink of national subjugation and annihilation. It also plunged Chinese women into an abyss of misery never witnessed before.

For national salvation and self emancipation, Chinese women, along with the entire nation, waged a dauntless struggle that lasted for over a century. They also launched a succession of movements for women's liberation. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom enacted and promulgated a series of policies on sexual equality. The Reform Movement of 1898 advocated and ignited the wave to ban feet binding and establish schools for women. The 1911 Revolution kindled a feminist movement which focused on equal rights for men and women and participation by women in political affairs. These movements promoted the awakening of Chinese women. Nevertheless, they all failed to bring about a fundamental change in their miserable plight as victims of oppression and enslavement.

Ever since its birth, the Chinese Communist Party has made the achievement of female emancipation and equality between men and women one of its goals. Under the leadership of the Party, women were mobilized and organized to form a broad united front with working women in industry and agriculture as the main body. Women of all ethnic groups and walks of life united to stage popular women's liberation movements closely tied to the Chinese revolution. In Communist Party-led base areas in particular, the revolutionary political powers issued a series of decrees and regulations to ensure the rights of women and raise their status. This brought light and hope to women throughout the country.

For the women of China, the founding of the People's Republic of China ended the thousands of years of feudal oppression and enslavement and the history of being trampled and bullied by foreign aggressors. With an entirely new face, they have stood up and become the masters of new China like all citizens of the country. In 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was convened in Beijing. The 69 women present accounted for 10.4 percent of the delegates. They represented women throughout the country in discussions together with men delegates on matters of vital importance for the country's construction. At the conference, Soong Ching Ling was elected vice-chairperson of the Central People's Government. Li Dequan, Shi Liang and some other women were also placed in leading posts in the government. The Common Program, adopted by the conference which had the nature of a provisional constitution, solemnly declared the toppling of the feudal system which fettered women and stated that women enjoyed equal rights with men in the political, economic, cultural and educational fields and in other aspects of social life. Thus a new era in the emancipation of Chinese women was ushered in.

After the founding of the People's Republic, there was a surge of mass movements throughout the country to quickly change the backward economic and cultural outlook left over by old China and eradicate the antiquated system and outmoded customs that fettered, discriminated against and humiliated women. This effected an earth-shaking historic change in the social status and condition of women.

-- Land reform. In old China, poor farmers and farm laborers, who accounted for 70 percent of the rural population, owned only 10 percent of the land. Women had no right to own any land. In the very early days of the People's Republic, a widespread and profound land reform movement was carried out, in accordance with the principle of distributing land on the basis of the number of members in a family. Rural women obtained land, just like their male counterparts, and became masters of their piece of soil. This fundamentally altered the situation of economic inequality between men and women.

-- Universal balloting. The Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated in 1953 clearly stipulated that women enjoy the same rights to vote and stand for election as men. The subsequent elections conducted at grass-roots level nationwide in December that year were the first large-scale general ballot in Chinese history. More than 90 percent of women cast their vote, and the number of women people's deputies elected at grass-roots level accounted for 17 percent of the total. Among the deputies to the National People's Congress, elected somewhat later, women made up 12 percent, with females accounting for 11 percent of all representatives from ethnic minorities. This indicates that ever since the founding of the People's Republic, the participation of women of all ethnic groups in state administration has been not only written into the law but also an actual practice. In some Western countries, only one or two centuries after their founding, did the law stipulate that women had equal voting rights with men.

-- The move out of the home. Along with the economic rehabilitation and development, there appeared a nationwide upsurge of women stepping out of their homes to take part in social production. In 1957, around 70 percent of rural women engaged in agricultural work, and the number of urban women workers and staff reached 3.286 million, representing a 5.5-fold increase over 1949. This thoroughly transformed the situation in which women were excluded from social productive labor, providing them with an independent source of income.

-- Illiteracy eradication campaign. In old China, as many as 90 percent of women were illiterate. In order to raise the cultural level of the entire nation, New China launched a planned campaign to gradually wipe out illiteracy. The mass campaign witnessed three upsurges in 1952, 1956 and 1958. Various literacy classes, popular evening schools and workers' spare-time schools mushroomed in both rural and urban areas, and women attended these in their millions. By 1958, 16 million women had learned to read, and this represented an initial step in eradicating the ignorance and backwardness of Chinese women.

-- Publicity and implementation of the Marriage Law. The Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated in 1950, was the first statute enacted by New China. It clearly declared the abolition of the feudal marriage system characterized by arranged and forced marriage, male superiority and female inferiority, and disregard for the interests of children. Implementation of the new system was marked by freedom for both men and women in marriage, monogamy, sexual equality and protection of the legitimate rights of women and children. This signified a profound revolution in the patterns of wedded and family life that had prevailed for several thousand years in Chinese society. In the months that followed the law's promulgation, a large-scale mass campaign was staged throughout the country to publicize and implement the Marriage Law. This action resulted in the annulment of numerous feudal engagements, a rapid reduction in wife bashing and maltreatment, and freely chosen love marriages became prevalent. Through several years of hard work, the shackles imposed upon women by the millennia-old feudal marriage system was smashed and freedom of marriage was basically established.

-- Ban on prostitution. Brothels, prostitution and whoring were among the disgusting social phenomena left over by old China. Immediately after its founding, New China adopted resolute measures to outlaw prostitution. In November 1949, the Second People's Representative Conference of Beijing Municipality took the lead in adopting a decision to ban prostitution. The municipal government immediately closed all brothels and gathered prostitutes in designated places where they could be educated, have their thinking reformed, receive treatment for venereal diseases, and be provided with guidance to help them start normal lives and support themselves through their own work. Following the example of Beijing, all large, medium-sized and small cities in the country, including Shanghai and Tianjin, waged campaigns to wipe out prostitution. In a very short period of time, the sale of sex, a chronic social malady that seemed impossible to eradicate in old China and which seriously damaged the physical and mental health of women and degraded their dignity, disappeared, enabling society to take on a brand-new outlook.

By means of these large-scale mass movements, New China took only a few years to clean up the filth and mire left over from a feudal society that had lasted for thousands of years. It effected fundamental emancipation for women in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social and family life. This represented a significant transformation in the history of contemporary social development that China can be proud of. It was also an important contribution made by the Chinese revolution to the worldwide movement for women's liberation.

一、中国妇女的历史性解放
　　1992年3月，联合国决定第四次世界妇女大会于1995年在中国首都北京召开，这使中国妇女的状况倍受世界关注。
　　在几千年的封建社会和百余年的半殖民地半封建社会中，中国妇女曾经有过长期受压迫、受屈辱、受摧残的悲惨历史。从本世纪上半叶起，广大妇女在中国共产党的领导下，为了民族和自身的解放，经过几十年不屈不挠的英勇奋斗，直到中华人民共和国成立，占全世界妇女四分之一的中国妇女终于获得了历史性的解放。
　　新中国宣告了中国妇女在政治、经济、文化、社会和家庭生活等各方面均享有与男子平等的权利，她们和全体中国公民一样成为国家与社会的主人。中国的各种法律保障妇女与男子具有同等的权利和地位，具有同等的人格和尊严。中国政府运用法律的、行政的和教育的手段消除对妇女的各种歧视，保护妇女的特殊权益。今天，中国妇女已享有中国社会几千年来从未达到、许多发达国家历时数百年方才得到承认的平等权利。
　　在社会主义制度下，中国妇女曾被禁锢的聪明才智极大地释放出来。她们以主人翁的姿态积极地投身于中国的建设和发展，成为创造物质文明和精神文明的伟大力量。她们是中国改革开放和现代化建设的生力军，在工农业生产、科学、文化、教育、卫生等各项事业中作出了极其重要的贡献。在中国，“半边天”成为全社会对妇女作用最形象的赞誉。
　　在推动社会发展的同时，中国妇女的精神面貌发生了重大变化，她们自尊、自信、自立、自强，在参政能力、文化水平、科学知识、生产技能等各方面都有了长足的进步。
　　中国妇女有着热爱和平的光荣传统。她们从未忘记侵略战争带来的深重灾难，坚决支持中国政府的和平外交政策。无论世界上发生什么样的冲突，她们总是站在正义与被侵略者一边，反对暴力与侵略。中国妇女是维护世界和平的重要力量。
　　建国四十五年来，特别是改革开放十五年来，中国妇女在“平等、发展、和平”的方向上取得了历史性的伟大进步。这是世界妇女进步事业的重要组成部分，也是中国人权进步的重要组成部分。
　　中国是一个发展中国家，受社会发展水平的制约和旧观念的影响，中国妇女的状况还有不尽如人意的地方，在现实生活中，妇女的参政、就业、受教育以及婚姻家庭中平等权利的完全实现，还存在着各种困难和阻力，轻视、歧视甚至侵害妇女的现象还时有发生，妇女的整体素质也有待于进一步提高。因此，中国妇女解放和发展的道路远没有完结。中国政府正在致力于发展经济，加强法制，消除一切歧视或轻视妇女的落后观念，促进中国法律赋予的男女平等权利在社会生活中全面实现，争取本世纪在中国实现《内罗毕战略》的各项发展目标。
　　中国政府、中国妇女和全体中国人民热情地欢迎第四次世界妇女大会在北京召开，正在全力以赴地为会议做好各项准备工作。为使国际社会更好地了解东道国的妇女情况，现将中国妇女的状况公诸于世界。

China attaches great importance to providing legal protection for females. Women enjoy equal legal status with men. Now, a comprehensive legal system has come into being to protect the rights and interests of women and promote sexual equality. It takes the Constitution as the basis and the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women as the core, and encompasses various specific state laws and regulations, administrative decrees and regulations enacted by various government departments, and local legislation.

The basic principles in China's legislative work concerning women are equal rights for men and women, protection of the special rights and interests of women, and the banning of any discrimination, maltreatment and persecution directed at women. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates, "Women enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of life, political, economic, cultural and social, including family life....The state protects the rights and interests of women, applies the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women alike and trains and selects cadres from among women....Marriage, the family and mother and child are protected by the state....Violation of the freedom of marriage is prohibited. Maltreatment of old people, women and children is prohibited." In line with the principles established by the Constitution, New China has promulgated over 10 fundamental laws, including the Marriage Law, Electoral Law, Law of Inheritance, Civil Law and Criminal Law. The State Council and various ministries and commissions under it have enacted over 40 administrative decrees and regulations. Local governments have devised more than 80 local regulations and rules. All these legislations include clear provisions on the protection of the rights and interests of women. No law in China contains clauses that discriminate against women.

The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women promulgated in 1992 provided an effective legal weapon for further enhancing the social status of women and guaranteeing their basic rights and interests.

Under Chinese law, the legitimate rights of women can be summed up into the following six aspects:

-- Women enjoy equal political rights with men. Women have the right, through various channels and in various ways, to administer state and social affairs, and enjoy equal rights to vote and stand for election. To ensure female participation in government and political affairs, the law stipulates that deputies to the National People's Congress and local people's congresses at various levels should include appropriate numbers of women and the proportion should be increased step by step. It states that the principle of sexual equality should be upheld when appointing people to leading posts, and attention should be paid to training and selecting top officials from among women.

-- Women enjoy equal rights with men with respect to culture and education. These cover school admittance, advancement to higher levels of schooling, job assignment after graduation, conferment of academic degrees and being dispatched for study abroad, plus women's rights to engage in scientific and technological research and literary and artistic creation. The government, society, school and family have the responsibility to ensure that the right of female children and adolescents to receive compulsory education is observed.

-- Women enjoy equal working rights with men. These mainly include: the right to work and be employed, equal pay for equal work, time-off, on-the-job safety and medical care as well as special labor protection, and social insurance. The law stipulates that any unit, while recruiting employees, is not allowed to refuse to employ women or raise the recruitment standards for women under any pretext. It cannot fire women or unilaterally annul their labor contracts on the pretext of marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave or baby nursing. It is not allowed to discriminate against women in terms of promotion, award of academic and technical titles, allotment of housing and enjoyment of welfare benefits, nor to assign women to tasks that are not suitable for them. Women enjoy special protection during menstruation, pregnancy, child birth and baby nursing period.

-- Women enjoy equal property rights with men. The law stipulates that rural women enjoy the same rights as rural men in the allotment of "responsibility farmland" and "grain-ration farmland" and in the approval of housing sites. With regard to marriage and family property, women enjoy equal ownership and inheritance rights with men. Widows have the right to dispose of property they inherit, without interference from anyone.

-- Women enjoy equal rights with men relating to their persons. Women enjoy the right to life and health, freedom of the person, the right of portrait, reputation and other rights relating the person; and they enjoy the right of kinship, guardianship, fame and status as a producer. The law prohibits abandonment and drowning of female babies and other forms of infanticide and bans discrimination against and maltreatment of women who give birth to female babies and women who are sterile. It forbids tormenting women with superstitious and violent means and bans maltreatment or abandonment of aged women. It forbids the abduction and kidnapping of women as well as the sale and purchase of such women. It bans actions to organize, force, seduce, shelter or introduce women to engage in prostitution.

-- Women enjoy equal rights with men in marriage and the family. The law states that women enjoy equal freedom in marriage and divorce, and the relations between husband and wife are equal. Women can use their own surnames and given names and participate in production and social activities. Women are subject to special protection with regard to divorce.

While clearly delineating the various concrete rights and interests of women, China's legislation amplifies the responsibilities of state organs in protecting women and clarifies the special status and role of the women's federations and other women's organizations in lawsuits, thus establishing a comprehensive legal mechanism for protecting women. Among the 54 articles of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women, 75 percent list in detail the consequences and legal responsibilities for infringements, thus providing an operational legal basis for enforcement of the law.

At present, China is still at the primary stage of socialism and remains comparatively underdeveloped in economic and cultural development. Therefore, certain provisions on the legal rights of women and guarantee mechanisms need to be further improved. Along with the in-depth development of China's modernization drive, the country's legal system on the protection of women's rights and interests will be perfected.

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