more recently the twelfth fiveyear plan of china and the china national programme for womens development plan reaffirm the governments commitment to gender equality by stipulating the strengthening of labour protection social welfare health care poverty relief and legal assistance for women women have increased their educational attainment from an average of years in to years in and the gross enrollment ratio for tertiary education has increased from per cent in to per cent in ministry of education of the peoples republic of china according to the world development indicators female labour force participation has declined from a high of per cent in to per cent in reaching a low of per cent in figure