Today, many women are educated and have moved into the paid labor force. Almost all urban women and the majority of rural women work outside the home. Despite the changes, women remain disadvantaged. Although they are working in the labor force, the jobs they have are generally lower paying and less desirable than those of men.
China is the only country in the world where more suicides are reported for women than for men.
In the countryside, a disproportionate number of girls are pulled from primary school because parents do not see the point of educating a daughter who will marry and leave the family, and because they need her labor in the home. There are fewer female students in key rural and urban secondary schools and universities. As economic growth in rural areas generates new and potentially lucrative jobs, there is a tendency in at least some areas for women to be relegated to agricultural labor, which is poorly rewarded. Women of Our World Report, Washington, D.C 2. In 1949 the average life expectancy for a Chinese women was 35 years old.