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How One Organization is Helping Chinese Women Discover Their God-Given Potential

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For years, Chinese women stayed at home to take care of their families, but that's starting to change. Today, more Chinese women are entering the workplace.   
          
Chinese tradition demanded that women be housewives and older movies often portrayed them as nurturing mothers and caring wives. 

Some women still enjoy living that way.

"I don't have a lot of demands. Good family and a healthy marriage are satisfying. Kids are important to me, too," one millennial in Beijing, China told CBN News. 

But like their American counterparts, a growing number of young Chinese females are seeking opportunities beyond their traditional role. More of them are now pursuing careers and delaying marriage. 

According to researchers, unwed women between the ages of 25 and 29 accounted for only 4 percent of the Chinese population in 1990. By 2010, that number increased to 21 percent.

"I encouraged my daughter to be married, but she kept on saying that she couldn't find anyone. That's hard to believe," one mother, Xian Ju, said. 

One Beijing organization called Lean In China offers a brand-new approach to help unmarried women. Their purpose is to get Chinese women to understand they can be successful without being married.
 
"Chinese women face three main challenges today," the organization's founder and CEO Virginia Ja told CBN News. "The first is lacking of self-confidence. The second is they lack approachable role models."

And, third, she said, is that "they don't have anyone to look up to and they don't know how to make friends outside their social groups." 

"Before I joined Lean In, I was very shy and fearful. I was too afraid of sharing my views. Girls' voices didn't matter," said office assistant Yan Yu Fei.  

Virginia and her colleagues believe modern Chinese women need to see their value doesn't depend on marriage. 

"Because China is developing so quickly these days, there are more opportunities for women in China today. When you are looking for someone who is very skilled, you don't care if they are men or women. You care if you could get the top talents," she said.  
 
As the Lean In program has grown, more Chinese women have come to realize that although they're single, they still have great potential and they can make an important contribution to the Chinese economy.

"Many younger Chinese women today don't have the courage and confidence to be leaders," said Nicole Sun, the founder and CEO of Puzzle International Education in Beijing.  "Traditional Chinese culture tends to mold us into certain shapes. The fact is Chinese women are capable of being the leader."

Sun was inspired by stories from other female members. So, she quit her job and immediately started her own company. 

"My father thought I was crazy after I quit the job. They expected me to get a job and be married soon," she said. "They didn't understand why I needed to 'have my own dream.'" 

Virginia Ja and her group have big plans for the coming year. They are hoping to create more female entrepreneurs. Together, they believe they can transform their country in an amazing way. 
 

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Mengfei
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