The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) join hands in promoting gender equality and decent work through strengthening workers’ education and social dialogue, at a workshop held at the UN pavilion in Shanghai World EXPO on 8 July 2010.

As employment discrimination against women tends to increase in times of crisis and fast economic growth, efforts should be made to address challenges and create more and better jobs for women and men. Providing equal access to vocational training and skills development remains of primary importance. The crisis and fast economic growth should not be used as an excuse to create even greater inequalities nor undermine women’s acquired rights.

The ILO/ACFTU workshop highlights actions being carried out at the national level to promote equality and decent work for women and men. The main objectives are:

• To enhance understanding of gender equality at the heart of the decent work in Chinese society;
• To eliminate gender stereotypes in social and economic development;
• To encourage integration of gender equality into policies, programmes and activities of different trade union departments and various industrial/sectoral trade unions; and
• To raise awareness and increase capacities of labour officials, employers and workers to design and implement laws and regulations to better safeguard the rights of all workers to employment, fair wages, social protection, and representation in decision making and social dialogue.

For the trade unions, workers’ education is one of the important means to promote gender equality.