妇女退休或能自己做主?

近年来女性退休年龄的问题引起了社会关注。记者获悉，我国将充分论证、审慎研究。全国人大内务司法委员会建议可以根据不同行业、不同劳动强度规定相应的退休年龄，同时可以把提前退休的选择权交给妇女。

A recent report says the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will begin an extensive review of the retirement age for women. A comprehensive study will be conducted considering factors including employment situation, gender equity, and social security. What do people say about it? Why do people support or oppose the proposal?

Currently in China, the retirement age is generally 60-years-old for men and 50 to 55 for women. Chinese scholars and the public have been debating for many years whether to raise the retirement age for women.

He Yuru, a retired teacher, says the current retirement age for women is good.

"I retired at the age of 55. I think this age is ok, because although women at this age are still able to work to some extent, but the brain is working much slower than young people. Moreover, nowadays, there is much fierce competition in the job market."

This is what Mrs. Xie agrees with. She has worked in a national design institute for her whole life. She says she remembers when she retired at 55, she spent a long time getting used to life after retirement.

"Under the current social development, I think women can keep working five years longer, while men can work until 65 or 70, if they don't have health problems. Or I think we should not set a fixed age for retirement. Especially in some fields, those green hands still need help and guidance from veterans. Anyway, I think women can keep working until 55 or 60."

According to the Xinhua news agency, the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, has proposed to set flexible retirement based on circumstances of different jobs.

The NPC committee further proposed that women be given the right to decide if they will retire earlier than the officially-set age.But, how was the current age limit set? Jia Yunzhu from All-China Women's Federation explains:

"The different retirement age between men and women were set in the 1950s. It aimed to protect women, as in 1950s, most women did those heavy manual works. Meanwhile, they had several children to take care of. Therefore, making women retire earlier was kind of protecting them."

However, Jia Yunzhu says, as the country's elderly population rise, the retirement age set years ago is no longer adapted to modern society. Most women nowadays raised only one child in the family, and they have access to higher education. And the mode of production nowadays saves many of them from doing heavy works.

She adds retiring early in some industries can be a human resource waste for the country, because the age of 50 to 60 for women can be the golden year of their careers when it comes to experience and knowledge accumulation.

But many people would ask what if delaying retirement takes many job opportunities away from young people. Jia Yunzhu says this assumption appears to be reasonable, but actually this is not true.

"Because there are few chances that young people and aged women compete for the same position. It's less possible that young people can take a senior position when they enter an organization. If the assumption is considered reasonable, why don't we ask men to retire earlier, the problem will be solved more quickly."

Jia says giving men and women the same right to decide when to retire could be the only way out. If women want to retire earlier, they can leave. But they should not be forced to leave when their 50-year-old birthday arrives.