(Source: "China Women's News" 2026-01-13)
Zhao Cuili Chen Li
On August 16, 2025, General Secretary Xi Jinping published an important article "Promoting the Healthy and High-Quality Development of the Private Economy" in the "Qiushi" magazine, pointing out that the development of the private economy in the new era and new journey has broad prospects and great potential. The overall strength, innovation capabilities, and market competitiveness of our country's private economy have been greatly improved, which cannot be achieved without the contribution of women. As of the end of 2024, women in my country have invested in more than 23 million private corporate enterprises, accounting for 41.6% of all private corporate enterprises, with an average annual growth rate of 9.8% since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. In the era of vigorous development of the private economy, women's power has become a key driving force in promoting its healthy and high-quality development.
The important role of women in the healthy development and high-quality development of the private economy
In the wave of vigorous development of the private economy, women have injected continuous vitality into it and actively shaped corporate culture and social ecology.
Release economic energy and consolidate the foundation for private economic growth. In the process of improving and upgrading the private economy, the in-depth participation of female groups not only injects lasting vitality into the private economy and adds development assistance, but also activates the market ecology by tapping into multiple values, giving its high-quality development richer connotations and more robust momentum. Stable employment of women can enhance employment attraction, provide strong support for stabilizing the employment situation, and further consolidate the important position of the private economy in economic and social development. As the main force in attracting employment, the healthy development of the private economy is of great significance to stabilizing the overall employment situation and promoting the continued improvement of the economy and society.
Enrich the connotation of corporate culture and create a unique corporate spirit. Corporate culture is the soul of an enterprise and the core force that condenses organizational consensus and drives sustainable development; corporate spirit is a highly condensed corporate culture and is the value orientation and spiritual identity that an enterprise has accumulated in its long-term operating practices. At a time when the private economy is booming, female groups have devoted themselves to it with their unique perspectives, innovative thinking and tenacious action. They have not only become important participants in the innovative development of the private economy, but also injected new vitality into the construction of corporate culture with their differentiated characteristics, promoting the enrichment of corporate cultural connotations and the reshaping of corporate spirit.
Promote social equity and inclusion and build a more sustainable development ecosystem. The integration of women's power into the private economy can promote the construction of social equity through equal practices in the economic field. By breaking gender barriers, the private economy has become a practical field for equal opportunities, which not only expands the development space for women, but also forces social resource allocation to be more reasonable. The demonstration effect formed by this equal participation will radiate to the family and social levels, cultivate a more inclusive development concept, and lay a solid social foundation for the long-term and healthy development of the private economy.
Highlight the gender dimension of Chinese modernization and enhance international competitiveness. The outstanding contribution of women in the private economy is the embodiment of the connotation of gender equality in Chinese modernization. This can not only enhance my country's voice and influence in the field of global gender equality, but also conform to the international consensus on gender inclusion, help enhance the international identity and cooperative competitiveness of private enterprises, and help them "go global."
Realistic obstacles for women to promote healthy and high-quality development of the private economy
Currently, women in our country still face practical obstacles in participating in the development of the private economy.
Structural biases in social cognition. Due to the cognitive inertia fostered by traditional gender role concepts, the role of female participation has been underestimated in the development of the private economy. Women's economic participation is easily restricted to non-core links, and women's abilities may be implicitly questioned in key areas such as strategic decision-making and resource allocation. This results in unfair distribution of opportunities, making it difficult for women to obtain resources that match their abilities, and the private economy is prone to missing out on the innovative vitality and diversified development possibilities brought by women’s wisdom.
The dual pressures of family and career. The dual pressures of family and career restrict the economic contribution of the female labor force. Data from the seventh national census show that among the working-age population in China's counties and towns in 2020, the proportion of population migration caused by marriage, attending w88 casino for children, taking care of grandchildren, and leaving with others was 8.88% among men and 21.7% among women. This shows that when weighing family and career, some women will focus on family, which not only distracts women from participating in economic activities, but also makes them more conservative in business expansion and risk decision-making, affecting their contribution to the development of the private economy.
Gender differences in psychological burden. Affected by traditional concepts, society has differentiated expectations and evaluation standards for men and women, which puts additional psychological pressure on women who join the private economy. Women are often given the "dual mission" of taking care of family and career. Once the two are out of balance, they may face excessive criticism and trigger negative emotions such as anxiety and self-doubt, which in turn will have a negative impact on women's decision-making ability and innovation courage to participate in the private economy.
The path to ability improvement is limited. The transformation and upgrading of the private economy places higher demands on the comprehensive quality of participants. Knowledge in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a core element in promoting the digital transformation of the private economy, but the participation of women in these fields is not optimistic. A report released by UN Women in 2024 shows that women account for only 26% of the workforce in the data and artificial intelligence fields and only 12% in the cloud computing field. There are relatively few women with sufficient knowledge reserves in related fields, making it difficult to meet the huge demand for emerging technical talents in the transformation and upgrading of the private economy.
Practical paths for women to promote healthy and high-quality development of the private economy
To remove the obstacles faced by women in the development of the private economy, it is necessary to empower women from multiple dimensions such as cognitive optimization, rights protection, platform construction, and industrial layout, so as to inject strong impetus into the healthy and high-quality development of the private economy.
Shape the cognitive concept of gender equality and create a social environment that supports women’s participation in private economic development. To promote women's better participation in private economic development, we must first start by changing social concepts and eliminating deep-rooted gender stereotypes. First, the concept of gender equality should be continued to be disseminated through mainstream media, publicity and education systems, and the whole society's recognition and respect for women's economic value should be strengthened. The second is to introduce special policies through government leadership and multi-party collaboration to help women find innovative employment, and provide tax exemptions, financial subsidies and other preferential treatment to private enterprises that actively recruit and promote women to key positions. The third is to promote an inclusive culture within the company, encourage women to participate in management decision-making, and set a positive example. The fourth is to enhance residents’ awareness of support for women’s development at the community level through lectures, theme activities and other forms. Only when the entire society forms an atmosphere that respects women's choices and recognizes their development potential can we truly break the invisible constraints and create a good external cognitive environment for women to join the private economy, so that they can realize their self-worth in a fair and inclusive society.
Improve the family support system and improve the social mechanism to protect women’s rights and interests. To enhance the breadth and sustainability of women’s participation in the private economy, the problem of their family care burden must be systematically addressed. The government should increase investment in public services, focus on promoting the construction of an inclusive childcare service system, expand the coverage of community infant care institutions, improve service quality and accessibility, and reduce the possibility of women interrupting their careers due to childcare. Enterprises need to create a family-friendly system, set up nurseries, adopt flexible work systems, cooperate with housekeeping to provide services to employees, and upgrade "mother posts" to "birth-friendly posts." Strengthen the protection of laws and regulations to ensure that women enjoy equal rights in maternity leave, return to work, job promotion, etc., and prevent women from being treated unfairly due to marriage and childbirth.
Strengthen psychological support and enhance women’s inner development resilience. In the process of participating in the private economy, women often face multiple psychological pressures from family expectations, workplace competition and social evaluation. A professional and normalized psychological support system should be established to solve this problem. For example, psychological counseling forces are deployed in industrial parks, entrepreneurial incubation bases and key enterprises to provide emotional counseling, stress management and self-cognition adjustment services to help women cope with psychological challenges such as anxiety and self-doubt. Systematically carry out leadership growth training, focusing on building self-confidence, communication and expression, decision-making ability and stress resistance, to enhance their psychological resilience in the face of risks and uncertainties. Encourage the establishment of female mutual aid groups and emotional support circles, promote experience sharing and emotional connection, and form a community ecology with positive incentives. Give full play to the role of women's federations and social service agencies, carry out mental health popularization activities, and eliminate the shame of seeking psychological help. By integrating professional resources, building service platforms, creating an inclusive atmosphere, and building a psychological support network with wide coverage, quick response, and sustainability, women can more calmly cope with development challenges and strengthen their confidence and ability to participate in economic practice.
Build an empowerment platform to form a synergy for women’s development. On the one hand, it enriches the forms of activities to help women grow. In addition to forums and salons, it also adds workshops, tutoring camps, etc., and subdivides themes according to industries and career development stages to meet diverse needs. The "Flowers of Creation" third season China Entrepreneurial Women Forum, launched in Urumqi in March 2025, is a typical event to help women grow. With the theme of "empowering women to start businesses and stimulate new business momentum", it builds a platform for women to work together. On the other hand, digital tools are used to build online communities to facilitate women to exchange experiences and share resources at any time. In addition, industry associations and social organizations should also give full play to their huge potential, build a diversified communication system and establish a long-term interactive mechanism to provide women with more comprehensive, in-depth and sustained support and fully stimulate women's potential.
[Zhao Cuili is a professor at the w88 casino of Marxism at the w88 casino; Chen Li is a doctoral student at the Scientific Socialist Teaching and Research Department of the Party w88 casino of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National Academy of Administration)]
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