Equal age retirement urged
( 2003-08-26 08:56) (China Daily)
Representatives attending the on-going ninth Chinese Women's National
Congress Monday called for the statutory retirement age to be made equal for men
and women.
However, the congress did not approve any motions on the issue.
In China, the retirement age for women is generally five years younger than
that for men. According to government rules, professional women working for
government institutions and State-run companies should retire at the age of 55,
but men should retire at 60. Female blue-collar workers may retire at the age of
50 and men at 55.
It is a waste that lots of well-educated women retire at an age when they are
still able to make a positive contribution in their job, said Cao Suying, head
of the All-China Women's Federation section in North China's Hebei Province.
Cao said she believed the central government set different retirement ages
for men and women in the early days of the People's Republic of China to protect
women's interests, since women were subject to the strain of bearing and rearing
children.
But since China adopted a new family-planning policy in 1979, couples have
been having fewer children and, as a result, women have fewer household chores
and have more energy for a career.
Xia Yinlan, vice-president of the Chinese Society for the Study of Marriage
and Household Relationships, said: "The policy of having different retirement
ages for men and women allows a kind of discrimination against women. We expect
to include its abolition as part of our revised Law on the Protection of Women's
Rights and Interests."
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