Thirty years ago, the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women of the United Nations was held in Beijing. The conference adopted the visionary Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a watershed moment for gender equality. Its call for gender equality still echoes today. And in days, global leaders will reconvene in Beijing again for the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women.
China’s answer to that call is already orbiting Earth. In December 2021, astronaut Wang Yaping taught China’s first live science lesson from the Tiangong space station, smiling as she demonstrated zero-gravity experiments to students on Earth. Behind this special science lesson lies an extraordinary journey—one that mirrors China’s own progress in women empowerment.
Wang Yaping grew up in a rural village in Shandong Province. Her childhood dream was to see the world outside the village. Few could have imagined she would one day slipped the surly bonds of Earth itself. Her voyage is the perfect metaphor for Chinese women’s upward trajectory—and for the “she-power” now radiating across the Global South.
Legal Launchpad
Wang’s lift-off was not luck; it was engineered by policy. Since the founding of the People’s Republic, “equality between men and women” has been a constitutional principle and a fundamental State policy. This commitment has been continually reinforced through laws and regulations, such as the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests and the Employment Promotion Law, systematically dismantling institutional barriers to women’s advancement.
After the 1995 World Conference on Women, gender budgeting became standard in national development plans, turning principle into propellant. This decades-long commitment has paved the way for women to excel, from grassroots communities to the highest echelons of science.
By the Numbers
Bolstered by this supportive framework, “she-power” has become a transformative force across Chinese society:
In education, women have outnumbered men in undergraduate programs for years.
In the economy, women account for over 40 percent of the total workforce and hold 37.7 percent of corporate board seat.
In politics, women now make up 26.54 percent of deputies in the National People’s Congress, a significant increase of 10 percentage points from three decades ago.
In health, China’s maternal mortality ratio has plummeted to a historic low, ranking among the best in upper-middle-income countries.
From astronauts and village secretaries to scientists and CEOs, the ceiling has become a sky.
South-South Synergy
China’s commitment extends beyond its borders. Through South-South cooperation, it actively partners with Global South nations to advance women’s development.
China shares expertise in maternal and child health, builds schools and health facilities through the Belt and Road Initiative and Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and runs vocational training programs like the Luban Workshops to equip women with modern skills.
Aid is outdated; partnership is the new payload. Partnership-driven cooperation has empowered women with the knowledge and tools to shape their own destinies. This is the global vision of the Beijing Declaration in action.
The ripple is visible. Madam Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has been recently elected Namibia’s first female president—30 years after she served as Rapporteur-General of the 1995 conference. She joins Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan and a growing galaxy of African women, demonstrating the rising political stature of women across the continent.
A Shared Future
As Liu Yang, another Chinese female astronaut recalled her mission in space, she said she saw “no borders, only one family.” Women’s empowerment is the gravity that can hold this family together.
The upcoming Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women in Beijing offers a chance to reinvigorate that global partnership. As the Global South rises, the unleashed potential of women will be an indispensable force for building a more equal, inclusive, and prosperous world for all. This is the ultimate fulfillment of a community with a shared future for humanity. That is “she-power”—and it is heading to the stars.
Hui Fan is a current affairs commentator based in Beijing.
