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Men still dominate Chinese politics despite rules and quotas aimed at increasing the number of women in China's government, as reflected in the annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing this week.
Only 20 percent of the 2,988 delegates in the National People's Congress are women, a percentage that has remained about the same since the 1980s and has even fallen slightly from 21 percent in the 1990s.
"Of course I hope to see more and more women in congress," said De Ji, one of only a handful of females from the Tibetan delegation to the parliament's annual 10-day session that began on Sunday.
"Women have their special ability and make a lot of contributions. They consider issues very carefully and they are very patient."
China has in recent years toughened quotas to ensure a certain number of positions for women at various levels of government, from the village, township and county to the province.
Village or urban neighborhood Communist Party committees, for example, have slots reserved for female candidates. Government offices, government-linked social groups and state-owned companies are also required to have a certain number of women in senior positions.
"At the county or provincial level, for example, there must be at least one female deputy county director or deputy governor," said Li Malin, a female legislator from Yunnan province.
Although the quotas vary and are not always made public, they are generally lower than the 20 percent benchmark figure in the national parliament.
Official statistics show that in 2001 only about eight percent of government officials at the provincial or ministerial level were women.
The parliament has a female vice chairman and there is a female vice premier, Wu Yi, who is the highest ranking woman in the Chinese government.
But it is still rare to have a female county director or governor, and a female NPC chairman or premier is even harder to imagine in the short-term.
"If we want to reach the level of northern Europe where women's positions are very high, then we still have a long way to go," said Li, the deputy director of Kunming Hospital in Yunnan's capital.
Although surveys cited by government bodies show many people believe discrimination is the main reason for the low representation of women in politics, Li and others believe the reasons are more complicated.
Chinese society's millennia-old favoritism towards men means that few women have been nurtured to rise up the political ladder, Li said.
A big turning point came after the communists took power in 1949 and then-leader Mao Zedong promoted women as equal to men.
But traditions remain hard to change, while social constraints and the political structure continue to hold women back, she said.
To climb up government ranks, cadres must be willing to relocate and work in areas away from their hometowns, mainly because the government wants to avoid the development of powerful local cliques.
"This is how government officials are groomed in China, but this is very difficult for women. They have more responsibilities at home," Li said.
"With a male cadre, you can send him to the countryside or transfer him anywhere. With women it's harder, so people don't give women these jobs and even if they give them the jobs, many women don't want them."
It is perhaps telling that Vice Premier Wu, 67, China's most powerful woman, has never married.
"She was sent to the countryside a lot. She lost the opportunity to find a suitable husband," Li said.
"In Chinese society, a woman can only be older than her husband by no more than three years, and she can't be more capable than him or people will make fun of her for marrying down and wonder if he gets bossed around by his wife."
In one sign of progress, however, those women who have risen to positions of power in China are not regarded as tokens, according to Li.
"Their responsibilities are the same as men's," Li said.
"The vice mayor of Simao city, Yunnan province, for example is a woman and she's in charge of managing men, including the public security department. She's very popular and she's doing a good job," said Li.
"There are also very few female politicians convicted of corruption in China."
Li said she believed the situation would be better for the next generation.
"I don't teach my daughter that she should be a housewife. I want her to feel she can be whatever men can be."
cs/kma/lod
Women-China-congress-NPC
AFP 072015 GMT 03 06
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