在中國(guó),性別不平等仍舊存在
?????? 聯(lián)合國(guó)開(kāi)發(fā)計(jì)劃署亞洲太平洋地區(qū)社會(huì)性別的人類發(fā)展報(bào)告今天發(fā)布
?????? 在過(guò)去的幾十年中,中國(guó)雖然在經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展上取得了舉世矚目的進(jìn)步,但這一進(jìn)步并沒(méi)有明顯改善中國(guó)性別歧視的狀況。和其它亞太地區(qū)國(guó)家一樣,中國(guó)的發(fā)展因性別差距而受到影響。在這一地區(qū)的女性受制于有限的權(quán)力、話語(yǔ)權(quán)以及權(quán)利。這一限制將有礙于中國(guó)未來(lái)經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)展。
?????? 以上內(nèi)容是今天發(fā)布的聯(lián)合國(guó)開(kāi)發(fā)計(jì)劃署《亞太地區(qū)人類發(fā)展報(bào)告 — 權(quán)力、話語(yǔ)和權(quán)利:亞太地區(qū)性別平等的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)》中的部分主要發(fā)現(xiàn)。聯(lián)合國(guó)系統(tǒng)駐華協(xié)調(diào)代表兼聯(lián)合國(guó)開(kāi)發(fā)計(jì)劃署駐華代表馬和勵(lì)在發(fā)布會(huì)上表示:“國(guó)際三八婦女節(jié)是強(qiáng)調(diào)和呼吁性別平等的重要平臺(tái)。雖然中國(guó)在提升婦女地位上已取得重大進(jìn)步,但我們也意識(shí)到,每個(gè)國(guó)家都或多或少存在性別差距。”
?????? 這份報(bào)告以推動(dòng)性別平等政策制定為目標(biāo),注重關(guān)注經(jīng)濟(jì)權(quán)力、政治決策以及法律權(quán)利三個(gè)方面。
?????? 據(jù)這份報(bào)告顯示,亞太地區(qū)女性的低就業(yè)率每年使這一地區(qū)損失幾十億美元。據(jù)保守估計(jì),在印度、印度尼西亞、馬來(lái)西亞等國(guó)家,當(dāng)女性的就業(yè)率水平提升到和發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家相同時(shí)(70%),這些國(guó)家每年的國(guó)內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值將增長(zhǎng)2-4個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。在中國(guó),將近70%的女性擁有有償工作,這一水平遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高出了世界53%的平均水平。這一數(shù)據(jù)和中國(guó)長(zhǎng)期較高的發(fā)展速度以及工業(yè)化進(jìn)程相符。
?????? 報(bào)告同時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn),亞太地區(qū)女性只擁有很少的政治職位,這一數(shù)量比除阿拉伯地區(qū)外世界任何地區(qū)都少。發(fā)展水平也不一定與女性參政水平相符。例如,在日本和韓國(guó),女性只擁有10%的立法席位。在中國(guó),女性人大代表數(shù)量從1983年起就在21%左右徘徊,而在農(nóng)村地區(qū),雖然女性占到了農(nóng)村勞動(dòng)力的65%,但處于地區(qū)決策地位的女性人數(shù)比例只有1-2%。在整個(gè)亞太地區(qū),女性僅擁有7%的土地,這一比例在世界大多數(shù)地區(qū)為20%。
?????? 而“失蹤女孩”的問(wèn)題在這一地區(qū)尤為突出。這一問(wèn)題包括男孩數(shù)量明顯多于女孩,以及女性因?qū)】岛蜖I(yíng)養(yǎng)的忽視而死亡。據(jù)該報(bào)告發(fā)現(xiàn),在全球?qū)⒔?億的“失蹤婦女”中,僅中國(guó)和印度就有8500萬(wàn)。這些女性大多死于醫(yī)療、營(yíng)養(yǎng)供應(yīng)上的歧視性對(duì)待甚至完全忽視,或是因?yàn)樗齻円婚_(kāi)始就未被允許出生。由于中國(guó)存在嚴(yán)重的重男輕女現(xiàn)象,在2005年,中國(guó)0-4歲人口中男性與女性的性別比為122:100。
?????? 就解決性別差距問(wèn)題,該報(bào)告提出的建議包括制定推動(dòng)性別平等的政策以及提高女性參政人數(shù)比例。在這方面,聯(lián)合國(guó)系統(tǒng)在其所有部門(mén)倡導(dǎo)社會(huì)性別主流化,通過(guò)關(guān)注社會(huì)性別,尊重人類發(fā)展以及以權(quán)利為基礎(chǔ)的方式,幫助中國(guó)達(dá)到千年發(fā)展目標(biāo)。馬和勵(lì)在最后說(shuō)道:“追求性別平等并不是最終目的,它是未來(lái)經(jīng)濟(jì)和社會(huì)發(fā)展不可或缺的一部分,因此將繼續(xù)作為聯(lián)合國(guó)開(kāi)發(fā)計(jì)劃署在中國(guó)以及全球的一項(xiàng)首要任務(wù)?!?/p>
Gender inequality persists in China
Launch of the Asia-Pacific Regional Human Development Report on Gender
While China has experienced unsurpassed economic development in recent decades, this progress has not been even in achieving gender equality. The country, like its Asia-Pacific counterparts, remains hindered by the presence of a severe gender gap. Women across the region continue to lack power, voice and rights; this void can impede a country's further economic growth.
Those were some of the findings of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sponsored 2010 Asia-Pacific Human Development Report launched today; entitled Power, Voice and Rights: A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific. "Women's Day is a great platform to highlight gender equality as a powerful investment," said Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China. "While China has made remarkable progress in improving the status of women, we know that there is no country in the world which is free from gender gaps."
Aiming to enhance policies toward gender equality, the Report focuses on three areas of interest — economic power, political voice and the establishment of legal rights.
According to the Report, lack of women's participation in the workforce costs the region billions of dollars every year. In countries such as India, Indonesia and Malaysia conservative estimates show that GDP would increase by up to 2-4 percent annually if women's employment rates were raised to 70 percent, closer to the rate of many developed countries. In China, nearly 70 percent of women are in paid work, well above the global average of 53 percent. This statistic runs parallel to the higher long-term growth and industrialization experienced by the nation.
The Report also finds that Asia-Pacific women hold only a handful of political offices, fewer than anywhere else in the world except in the Arab region. Development level does not necessarily correlate with high political participation for women, either; women in Japan and the Republic of Korea, for example, hold just 10 percent of legislative seats. Female representatives in China's National People's Congress have lingered around 21% since 1983. In rural China, although women make up 65% of the rural labor force, they occupy only 1-2% of the local decision-making positions. Throughout Asia-Pacific, women head only 7 percent of farms, compared to 20 percent in most other regions of the world.
The problem of "missing girls" ―in which more boys are born rather than girls and women die from health and nutrition neglect— is actually growing throughout the region. China and India together account for more than 85 million of the nearly 100 million "missing" women estimated to have died from discriminatory treatment in health care, nutrition access or pure neglect ―or because they were never born in the first place, the Report found. With China's strong preference for male offspring, in 2005, the sex ratio of children under the age of 5 totaled 122.66 (122 boys for every 100 girls born), the highest ratio in all of Asia Pacific.
Putting in place policies which favor gender equality while boosting female political participation are some of the solutions recommended by the Report to help mend the gender gap. In its efforts, the UN system promotes gender mainstreaming in all its programs and adopts gender-responsive, human-oriented, rights-based approaches to China's Millennium Development Goals. "Gender equality is not only an end in itself, but integral for the achievement of further economic and social development, and thus is a continuing priority for UNDP globally and in China," concluded Malik.