Thirty years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing once again becomes the focal point of‘a world in search of‘balance. In 1995, the Declaration and Program of‘Beijing’s action had brought about a common language: women’s rights are human rights. L‘event had laid the foundations of‘a silent revolution, by registering the‘equality in the field of public policies.
Since then, progress has been real. The number of countries with laws for‘equality increased from 12 to 193. Girls’ enrollment increased from 69% to 89%. The presence of women in parliaments has more than doubled. But these figures, behind their statistical brilliance, hide persistent fractures: gender violence, economic precariousness, decline in sexual and reproductive rights, rise of conservatism and the anti-feminist “backlash”.
L‘legacy of Beijing therefore remains an open work — no longer that of the proclamation of rights, but that of their effectiveness.
1995-2025: from promise to‘execution
Beijing 1995 marked a historic break: for the first time, States recognized that‘gender equality n‘was not a supplement‘soul but a condition of development. L‘education of girls, the fight against violence,‘access to health and decent work formed the pillars of‘a fairer world.
Thirty years later, the challenge n‘is more legal but operational. The laws exist; their implementation falters. The data of the‘UN Women (2024) show that the world is off course to achieve‘Sustainable Development Goal n°5 on l‘gender equality. The climate crisis accentuates the vulnerability of rural women; the digital revolution opens up an unprecedented field of online violence; and successive economic crises weigh more heavily on those whose work, often invisible, supports society.
In this context, the main objective of the World Women’s Summit in Beijing should be to move from declarations to lives, to transform normative frameworks into concrete policies. L‘issue n‘is more‘add texts, but guarantee means: earmarked budgets, accessible services, reliable data, and effective recourse mechanisms.
At the heart of this agenda, a priority‘imposes: recognize and finance the‘care economy. Women still devote, according to‘ILO, more than triple the time of men in unpaid care. As long as this work remains invisible and not valued,‘equality will remain theoretical. Making care a pillar of universal social protection,‘is to do justice to those who support daily life and free up essential time for‘education, to‘employment, creativity.
China, heiress and actress of the‘spirit of Beijing
For China, the 1995 Conference was more than‘a diplomatic summit: a point of‘anchor to register the‘equality over time. The notion of‘“fundamental equality between the sexes” has since appeared as a constitutional principle, and several Outlines for Women‘s Successive developments have enabled‘articulate concrete policies. The latest, that of 2021-2030, sets quantified objectives in terms of‘education, health, economic and political participation.
Progress is visible: the proportion of young women in the‘higher education‘has never been higher, maternal health s‘is significantly improved, and the law revised in 2022 on the protection of women’s rights and interests strengthens the fight against discrimination and harassment.
But what best illustrates these transformations are the faces.
I remember‘a meeting in Lhasa, in Xizang, with young women who had benefited from free education‘secondary education. Their joy of‘learning embodied what Beijing 1995 had sown: the conviction that‘education is the key to‘emancipation.
A few years later, in Xinjiang, I‘I spoke with women who had not only studied, but also created their businesses. They spoke with pride of their autonomy, their ability to act and contribute to local development.
These trajectories, once exceptional, are now becoming‘today more and more ordinary — etc‘is there the mark of‘a profound change. L‘ideal proclaimed in Beijing in 1995 is now materializing in the lives of women who are transforming their future.
S‘it was necessary to embody this evolution with a name, it would be that of Zhang Guimei.
By founding the first free high school for disadvantaged girls in Yunnan, she enabled thousands of‘teenage girls‘escape early marriage, pursue higher education and choose their destiny.
His fight illustrates a simple truth:‘Education is the root of freedom.
In a world where women’s rights are sometimes weakened, Zhang Guimei recalls that the fight for‘equality n‘is not only a matter of laws, but also of‘concrete acts, patience and daily courage.
His action resonates with the words of Virginia Woolf, who wrote that‘a woman needs‘“a room of one’s own” to write and think. Zhang Guimei offers these young girls a classroom of their own — a space to learn, imagine, and reinvent‘future.
For a new global agenda:‘equality as a driver of human progress
L‘equality n‘is not a moral luxury, it‘is a strategic lever. In the economic field, all studies converge: include women in production and‘Innovation increases growth, resilience and creativity. In culture, this broadens imaginations and breaks fixed representations. In scientific research, this opens new fields (from health to‘artificial intelligence) where the diversity of perspectives becomes a condition of‘ethics and‘efficiency.
The world of the 21st century, faced with the climate crisis, the digital revolution and the transformation of working methods, needs all kinds of intelligence. However, half of‘between them still remains under-represented or under-valued. Reinvest in‘equality, c‘is reinvesting in the future.
The Beijing World Summit could be‘opportunity to launch a Global Care and Social Protection Pact, based on three pillars:
1. Universal public services (child care‘children, dependency, reproductive health) financed and accessible;
2. Fair and non-transferable parental leave;
3. Widespread ratification of Convention 190 of the‘ILO against violence and harassment at work.
This would be a way of giving Beijing+30 a concrete scope, by linking the‘gender equality to social justice and environmental sustainability.
China-France dialogue: convergences and hopes
In this context, France and China can play a complementary role.
France is carrying out, with its feminist diplomacy, a normative reflection on representation and civil rights. China, for its part, is experimenting with models of‘inclusion by‘education, health and economic participation. Between these two approaches a possible convergence emerges: that of‘a pragmatic and universal equality, rooted in cultures but open to cooperation.
Women, through their experience of conciliation, transmission and care, can become the mediators of the world to come. In an international climate often marked by competition, they remind us that progress is also measured by the capacity of civilizations to dialogue, to learn‘one of the‘other, and to co-construct common horizons.
Thirty years after 1995, we return to Beijing not to commemorate, but to reinvent.
L‘equality can no longer be limited to a speech or an indicator: it must become a daily, measurable, shared practice.
What I‘I saw in Lhasa or in Xinjiang, what women like Zhang Guimei symbolize, what the words of Virginia Woolf still proclaim, all this converges towards the same idea:‘equality n‘is not a claim from the past, but the living language of the future.
What if Beijing, once again, became the place where the world learned to conjugate this word in the present tense?
*SONIA BRESSLER is a philosopher and founder of the Silk Road – Editions.
