I have been invited to attend a ceremony tomorrow to mark the opening of a number of centres devoted to the study of women and gender issues.

These centres will be located on the campuses of a number of universities, as well as colleges devoted to the training of agronomists, teachers, ethnologists and women leaders.

I believe the spread of such centres, which is beyond the realm of the All-China Women's Federation and its regional and grass-roots branches and women activists, is a step towards turning the national policy on gender equality into concrete action.

What is especially noteworthy is that the provincial Party schools of Liaoning and Shaanxi provinces will have such centres on their campuses.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the ceremony and one-day forum will be held at the School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The Central Party School trains Party and government officials at ministerial and director-general level in political theories, policies and decision-making.

These are the people who help draw up national and regional policies, as well as implement policies and other Party and administrative decrees that affect our lives and the well-being of the country.

These officials are now learning to take into account environmental, ecological and social factors in their decision-making, and they are becoming a little more responsive to issues such as HIV/AIDS.

From my own experience having spent four months at the Central Party School, many of the officials studying there still subconsciously believe that men are superior to women.

As a result, some policies and decrees have served to widen the gender equality gap. For instance, the age ceiling for women's advancement in both official and professional ranks is about five years lower than that of men.

The existing Labour Law contains a clause that forces women to retire five years earlier than men, even though more than 80 countries in the world have laws stipulating an equal retirement age for men and women.

That is why, despite their already heavy workload, I believe these top officials need special training on gender issues.

Five years ago, I had a chance to sit with farmers from Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia and northern Shaanxi for two days to go through such training.

We started with seemingly family topics such as common names or parents' expectations for girls and boys.

The lists we drew up associated girls with flowers, softness, beauty, kindness, or even a wish for a younger brother, while boys' names often symbolize metal, money, fortune, pillar, or ideals related to officialdom or the public good, or freedom (such as eagles in Mongolian names).

We drew a series of charts from the names, family wishes to occupations and media reports to compare and we discovered how age-old traditions have built up different moulds for girls and boys.

All this has affected the thinking, life and even destiny of individuals, and resulted in disparities between women and men, for instance, in income, education, profession, leadership or social attitudes and expectations.

As far as I know, many people from women's federation staff and urban district officials to police and hospital doctors have joined similar training workshops that promote gender equality and awareness.

These people, in their own capacity, have come up with local policies and work practices that help reduce domestic violence in their area of jurisdiction.

Although it is hard to root out such a centuries-old tradition from Chinese society, top officials should be made aware of the gender issues so that they can make better decisions.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/08/2006 page4)