Great progress has been made for Hangzhou women in the areas of political engagement, educational training, heath care, employment and legal protection, according to a report released by the Hangzhou Women's Federation and the Hangzhou statistics bureau on women's development on March 7, a day before Women's Day.

Over the past several years, Hangzhou has made significant efforts to improve the lives of women. To better improve health care for women and children, Hangzhou has established two city-level and eight district or county-level maternity centers specializing in the treatment of pregnant women in critical condition.

In 2019, the prenatal screening rate for Hangzhou women, which is encouraged by the city in order to decrease the number of birth defects, reached 95.95 percent. Many other efforts were also made to block mother to child transmission of AIDS.

According to the report, education for Hangzhou women has greatly improved. In 2019, Hangzhou established 87 new primary and middle schools and kindergartens, and the enrollment rate for school-aged girls in Hangzhou reached 100 percent.

The number of female students at high schools, schools for adult higher education and universities accounted for 51 percent, 51.7 percent and 50.8 percent of all students, respectively. Female postgraduates accounted for 46.5 percent of all Hangzhou postgraduates.

The report showed that in recent years more Hangzhou females have been engaging in political affairs. In rural areas, the number of females working at the local village committee accounted for 35.7 percent in 2019, and the number of female members of the local community committee accounted for 54.4 percent.

In recent years, Party committees at all levels in Hangzhou have been focusing on training female leaders, listing it as one of their most important annual tasks.

Last year, Hangzhou worked to improve the medical insurance coverage rate for women, and significant progress has been made.

Hangzhou also launched guidelines to encourage females to start businesses by providing financial support and training services. More than 40 female entrepreneurs in Hangzhou have benefited from the policies.

Hangzhou has made consistent efforts to crack down on illegal actions infringing on the interests and rights of women and provided more efficient legal services for females.