During my travels in China in the past decade, it has been heartening to see the advancement of women in the country. Access to education and business opportunities are beginning to give Chinese women their rightful place in the country's economic expansion.
Consider a few facts from a report by Ernst & Young in 2007. According to a study from Mastercard cited in the report, young, unmarried women or married women with no children will control $260 billion in purchasing power by 2015. That is up from just $180 billion in 2005. Even elderly women who live alone will have a surprising amount of spending power--$115 billion by 2015--more than double the amount in 2005.
While 74 percent of women earn less than their husbands, an estimated 78 percent of them have control over the family's money. Married women make the decisions on what the family eats and what the family wears in Chinese households.
Even when it comes to big purchases such as cars or luxury items, a significant minority of Chinese women--23 percent--indicated that they could make those purchases on their own. This is a shift from conventional wisdom as Ernst & Young's report succinctly points out: "...general assumptions were that men being the sole or main breadwinner would also therefore act as the main decision maker when it comes to financial planning on spending."
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