Modern-day China cannot simply offer training courses which
cater to elite women, such as executives or managers. To truly
achieve gender equality, these courses need to be accessible to
female university and even high school students, said Xu Liping,
vice president, of China Higher Education Press’ Superior Liberal
Arts Department on March 25.
Xu was speaking at a seminar, seeking to address problems facing
female students. The seminar was based on the findings of The
Classroom of Women’s Growth, a book written by Xu Guojing, the
head of Scientific Institute of China Juvenile Education. Its
academic punch came from its speakers, who hailed from some of
China’s foremost universities such as Peking University, Beijing
Normal University, Agriculture University of China and Jilin
University.
When quizzed about how they view their social status, female
students provided a fairly negative overview. Problems ranged from
developing inferiority complexes vis-à-vis boys, the too many
fluctuations that bombard a woman’s social life and parents
believing that girls cannot surpass boys academically.
The Classroom of Women’s Growth seeks to shed light on
the modern woman’s life by analyzing the social factors that can
either impair or aid a woman’s development. Distributed to many
female students, it will hopefully provide them with sound advice
to overcome some of life’s more piquant social problems.
Published by the Higher Education Press, the book and its
accompanying materials will be available both in traditional and
multi-media formats.
According to Xu, this new teaching method uses cutting-edge
techniques to bring China’s latest educational theories to
university students, often woefully deficient in independent study
and research methods.
As it stands, no training courses tailored specifically to women
exist, except for specialized senior-executive level programs. Xu
is thus sounding a clarion call for this kind of seminar to become
a regular activity nationwide, and ultimately filter down to
creating women’s studies courses in universities.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Ting, March 30, 2007)