Eight delegates to the 10th National Women's Congress attended a press conference on October 28 after the congress' opening ceremony and answered questions about women's status in various areas and the protection of women's rights and interests.

Deputy Xia Yinlan, head of the college of International Studies of China University of Political Science and Law, replied to a question about the promotion of the gender equality policy on legal basis. She said that China had established a legal system to safeguard women's human rights over the past five years. The Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and the Constitution Law are the main body of the legal system and other laws and regulations are supplements. "Laws that are closely related to civil rights such as the Real Rights Law and the Law on Land Contract in Rural Areas were promulgated during the five years," Xia added. "And it is clarified in the Women's Rights and Interests Protection Law that governments are the executive bodies for women issues. There are 25 provinces working out local rules to implement the Law."

Wang Jin, president of Chengdu Women's Federation, said that the task of women's federation in the process of rural population's urbanization was to help women find jobs and become rich. "We have established a special employment center for laid-off and rural women in Chengdu and helped 100,000 of them get employed," she said. Wang added that two million people in Chengdu suffered losses after the May 12 earthquake so the federation would make more efforts to offer them aids to find jobs.

Yang Meng, the youngest deputy to this year's congress, expressed her expectations of better life for the fellow girls in her hometown in Yunnan Province. She said they usually went out to make money and returned home for doing farm work. "Now we can take technical training to learn new knowledge in our village and seek more ways to improve our lives. I hope girls who work outside hometown can bring back useful experience and skills from the developed regions and help build a well-off countryside."

Lǚ Ye, director of spacecraft system test section of No 5 Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said that the proportion of women in high-end scientific areas was low but meticulosity was an advantage of female workers. "Women account for one third of the corporation's staff and we have no difference with male colleagues in work. In our test section, we must be very careful to discover every small problem." Lǚ was proud that the national flag displayed by China's first spacewalker Zhai Zhigang this September was embroidered by women technicians in her team.

Che Jing, deputy-mayor of Yingkou People's Government, Liaoning Province, Liu Wenli, deputy-commander of Division 95006 of the People's Liberation Army, Qin He, head of Jili Huaqiao Foreign Languages Institute, and Huang Chunyan, steward of Chongqing Bus Co., Ltd., also took part in the press conference.

(womenofchina.cn October 29, 2008)