The average life expectancy of Chinese women reached 80.88 years in 2020, up from 77.37 years in 2010, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday (December 21).

Chinese women’s social status has been raised significantly over the past decade, and their sense of accomplishment, happiness and security has increased dramatically, said an NBS report on the monitoring results of the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020).

The gender gap in compulsory education has been eliminated, with the net enrollment rate of primary school-aged girls remaining above 99.9 per cent for six consecutive years since 2015, the same as that among boys.

With the improvement of policies for employment and starting businesses over the past decade, employment channels for women have been expanded, and the number of women in the workforce has seen a steady increase.

There were 67.79 million female employees in urban work units last year, up 39.5 per cent from 2010. Women currently account for 43.5 per cent of China’s total employment, according to the report.

Although historic progress has been made in promoting gender equality and women’s all-around development during the decade, the report noted that the protection of women’s rights and interests in some fields still needs to be strengthened.