In the 1990s, the Chinese Government worked out the Program for the Development of Chinese Women (PDCW) and the Program for the Development of Chinese Children (PDCC) for the end of the century. Most of the targets set in these two programs have been reached by now. At the beginning of a new century, new "programs" have been worked out and the development of Chinese women and children has set new targets for the next 10 years.

Basic situation of Women's Development
When the first PDCW was worked out in 1995, the proportion of women at leading posts of provincial-level governmental bodies was six percent, which increased to eight percent by 2000, while the ratio of women congresswomen increased slightly, from 21 to 22 percent. This shows that, although Chinese women have played a certain role in participating in the state's decision-making and management, their proportion in high-level decision-makers is still low.
There have been no great changes in the percentage of women employed in the past five years, from 31 to 33 percent. But there is an evident change in the distribution of trades women were involved in-the proportion in primary and secondary industries decreased, while it increased by 1.5 times in private enterprises and by 60 percent in self-employment. These figures show that the ratio of Chinese women's employment is comparatively high and is in a rather stable state. The structure for women's employment tends to be reasonable when one considers trades in non-public owned enterprises are going to be the main entities absorbing women for work. Also discovered is that the public labor and employment policies in investigation still lack gender awareness in the aspect of reasonable allocation of resources.
Since the level of women's cultural quality directly decides the degree and process of women's participation in development, close attention has been paid to women's education. Through five years' efforts, the ratio of female college students has risen from 1.6 to 3.7 percent, the ratio of female senior-middle school students from 4.6 to 8.1 percent, female junior-middle school students from 34 to 46.8 percent and female primary school pupils remains as it was five years before, at 100 percent. The increase of the number of female students of junior-middle school and above shows apparently successful results from the nine-year compulsory education system and the particular attention to girl's education, as well as a basic realization of gender equality in this aspect. However, the entire level of women's education is still lower than men's and can hardly meet the demands of the times.
The state of women's health is obviously improved. The mortality rate of pregnant and birthing women has reduced, from 94.7 per 100,000 in 1989 to 53 per 100,000 in 2000. A network for the health of women and children has been gradually standardized and perfected. Breakthroughs of progress have been made in the environmental reform of rural areas, mainly with the changing of water system and toilets, which have reached 92.38 and 44.84 percent respectively. Yet, limited by the level of economic development, the whole level of medical health care service women enjoy is still at a primary stage and the influence of social problems such as sexual transmitted diseases, AIDS and drug addiction to women's health has not received sufficient attention.
Women's status in the family is considered a basic sphere of women's fundamental situation in the society. According to statistics, the average age of a woman's first marriage is 20.7 years old. When making decisions on prominent family matters, 67.4 percent are decided by couples together or mainly by wives; while 88.7 percent of women possess the decision-making power over their own individual matters. The average time that urban career women spend on housework every day is 2.9 hours, 1.6 hour more than men. What should be paid attention to is that the current statistics do not reflect the specific backgrounds of marriage and family. For instance, they do not have the numbers of single-mother families, degree of attention children and senior people have received in the family and how many families are subjected to domestic violence.

Basic Situation of Children's Development
Concerning children, their state of health is the primary issue. The mortality rate of infants and young children under five years has been reduced from 51 and 61 per thousand in the 1990s to 32.2 and 39.7 per thousand in 2000. The incidence of disease among low-weight children under five has been reduced to 10 per thousand, from 21 per thousand in 1990. The target of elimination of polio has been reached. The life expectancy at birth, currently age 70, has almost reached the level of developed countries. But the entire level of children's nutrition needs further improvement; basic health care for the children of urban migrants and poverty-stricken people lacks a sufficient guarantee; due to unbalanced development between areas and urban and rural areas, apparent difference exists in children's life.

Main Targets for Women's Development
With a full consideration for the 12 important spheres in women's development put forward at the Fourth World Conference on Women, on the basis of the practical problem urgently needed to be solved in Chinese women's development and the sustainable development in the following 10 years, the PDCW the Chinese Government made in 2000 has defined the six spheres to be developed first. These six spheres include: women and economics, women's participation in decision-making and management, women and education, women and health, women and the law, and women and the environment.
The main targets in the first of the six spheres are: ensuring women gain equal rights and opportunities in obtaining economic resources; eliminating sexual discrimination in employment; keeping the ratio of women employees above 40 percent of the total; ensuring that women enjoy rights equal to men in social welfare; and the coverage of reproduction insurance for urban employees reaches over 90 percent.
The main targets in the second sphere are: to increase the proportion of women participating in administration, there is to be more than one female leader in the leading bodies of governments at all levels and more than half of female cadres in state organs, provincial- and prefecture-level government departments; there is to be a comparatively bigger increase of women at prominent posts; the proportion of women at the administrative level in the trades which gather the majority of women fits the proportion of women staff members and workers there; and channels for women's democratic participation is widened and the level of this is improved.
The main targets in the third sphere: the net rates for school attendance are to reach around 99 percent among the girls of primary school age, about 95 percent among girls of junior middle school age, 75 percent among girls of senior middle school age and 15 percent among women of college attendance age; the rate of literate women is to increase along with the rate of literacy among young and middle-aged women, to reach approximately 95 percent.
The main targets in the fourth sphere: women will enjoy health service throughout their lifetime; women's life expectance is increased; women's level of reproductive health is improved; women are guaranteed to enjoy the right of family planning and women's infection rate of HIV is controlled at a comparatively low level.
The main targets in the fifth sphere: to perfect the laws promoting equality between the sexes, protecting women's right of person and prohibiting all forms of violence against women; to safeguard women's equal right to property as men; and to provide women with legal aids.
The main targets in the sixth sphere: to create a social environment beneficial for women's all-around development; to improve women's access to social welfare service; to advocate an equal and civilized relationship in the family; to increase the degree of women's participation in environmental protection and decision-making; and to increase the time women have to care for themselves.

Main Targets for Children's Development
Sticking to the principle of "first call for children," the PDCC has set the following targets for the future 10 years: guaranteeing children's rights in survival, development, protection and participation, as well as improving children's integral quality. Specifically--
In the aspect of children's health: to improve the quality of birth population and reduce the mortality of pregnant and birthing women in 2000 by one fourth; to reduce the current mortality of infants and children under five years by one fifth; to increase the level of children's nutrition; to have 85 percent of children fed with mother's milk; to have over 95 percent of primary and middle school pupils pass the requirement in physical education; to reduce the number of juveniles who smoke and prevent juveniles from taking drugs.
In the aspect of children's education: to popularize the nine-year compulsory education and guarantee all children enjoy the right of education; children of school age are all basically able to receive pre-school education; to popularize, step by step, the senior middle school level education and increase the level of family education.
In the aspect of children's legal protection: to crack down the unlawful practice which infringes upon children's legal rights and interests; to ban the use of child laborers and abuse of children; to prevent and put a control to juveniles' offenses and provide legal aids to children.
In the aspect of children and environment: to improve the natural environment for children's survival, to optimize the social environment for children's development and provide protection for children in difficulty.