Environment key to gender equality
Li Xing China Daily  Updated: 2005-11-10 05:57

Some 13 years ago I spent a few days climbing my way through the forest in the Qinling Mountains, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

When I was feeling my legs shaking and breath shortening, I reminded myself that I was only following beaten mountain trails.

The trailblazers were Professor Pan Wenshi and his then doctoral student Lu Zhi, of Peking University. When Professor Pan returned to Beijing to fulfill his class schedules, Lu Zhi stayed on, against all odds of hardship, hunger and loneliness, to track down the giant pandas living in the Qinling range and learn about their habitat in the mountains.

Together, they published the world's first comprehensive studies of the giant pandas living in the wild in the Qinling Mountains. They pointed out that increased human activity, such as logging, poaching and farming, posed major threats to the pandas' survival.

Today, logging has stopped and a nature reserve opened in the area.

Meanwhile, Dr Lu Zhi has moved on to become a biology professor and a devoted conservationist, leading comprehensive projects for nature and wildlife conservation in the country, especially in western regions.

It came as no surprise that she won the acclaimed "Chinese Young Women in Science Fellowship" yesterday in Beijing, along with four other women researchers.

The award winners like Lu Zhi demonstrate that women are as competent as their male peers in science studies.

However, society has yet to improve its environment to enable more women as well as girls to have equal opportunities in their professional pursuits as their male peers, like Lu Zhi and the four award winners.

According to studies, the social and work structure has not been conducive to women's advancement when they want to return to their jobs after a few years away attending to their young children, for instance.

Some people continue to discourage women from setting higher goals in their chosen professions, especially in sciences.

Late last year, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers suggested that women's brains are not genetically developed for math or science.

Others have jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that women are less ambitious than men and that their average low pay is of their own doing.

And the media have not been helpful in facilitating a social environment that advocates gender equality. Some are especially indulgent in emphasizing the traditional stereotype, as they refuse to recognize the great changes over the past century and the great contributions half of the world's population have made towards political, social, cultural, economic and scientific development.

In August, some media were very accommodating when two British academics went to them with their announcement that "men are significantly cleverer than women," claiming that male university students outstrip females by almost five IQ points.

With the cannonballs supplied from the two researchers, some media flashed such banner headlines as "Girls need manpower" and "IQ tests: women just don't get it."

It is a delight that the women leaders in all the fields of studies and professions, including Lu Zhi and four other winners of the science fellowship, have had no time to get distracted by the biased media blasts.

They have steadfastly been devoted to their own work and research goals despite all odds, as Lu Zhi frequently says: "I am only enjoying what I do."

It is society's responsibility to create an environment and improve its structure and system to foster women's development on a par with their male peers.

It is the media's responsibility to commend and spread their contribution to scientific advancement and to give confidence to many more girls who aspire for achievements not only in sciences but in all fields.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/10/2005 page4)