Jiang Li, a female college graduate in east China`s Jiangsu province, has set up a clothing company with a loan obtained through a local women`s organization and interest paid by government.
Obtaining a 50,000-yuan ($7,614) interest-free loan in 2009 helped Jiang to start her clothing factory. Her company currently has 96 sewing machines and employs nearly 100 mostly women employees.
"It would be difficult for me to start my own company without the loan," she said.
Jiang hopes that her company in Shuyang county, Jiangsu province can one day set up branches across the country, so as to employ more Chinese women.
Jiang is one of the many woman entrepreneurs benefitting from a government scheme that pays the interest on their loans.
In east China`s Shandong province, 6,519 women got 340 million yuan in loans last year with the local government paying the interest.
The loans helped 58 female entrepreneurs expand their businesses and create employment for over 20,000 women.
Under the scheme launched in 2009, local women`s organizations help unemployed women secure bank loans of up to 80,000 yuan, and then the government pays the interest.
More employment opportunities for women
During the country`s reform and opening-up, the number of women employees has increased steadily.
Statistics from the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) showed that by October last year, women workers in China amounted to 137 million, making up 42.6 percent of the country`s work force.
Women have become an indispensable force to promote social and economic progress, the ACFTU said in a statement Monday, one day before International Women`s Day.
Meanwhile, women are working in more industries nowadays, not just in the traditional textile and service sectors.
By September last year, female employees accounted for 52.5 percent of the total employment in health, social security and social welfare sectors, 51.6 percent in accommodation and catering sectors, 48.4 percent in education and 45.6 percent in the finance sector, according to the ACFTU statistics.
"Raising children and housework is not such a stumbling block for Chinese women`s development as it once was," said Shao Xiaoying, an associate professor of Shanghai-based Fudan University.
Generally, women`s ability to communication well and quickly adapt to different environments can make them more competitive in the workplace than their male counter-parts, Shao said.