Now, France will soon debate a bill phasing in a female quota for boardrooms as the country strives to get more women into positions of power in business. If the law is passed, it could be made mandatory to set aside 40 percent of spots in the boardroom to women.

Spain and the Netherlands have already passed similar laws for female quotas. Belgium, Britain, Germany and Sweden are considering legislation. In the European Union, less than 10 percent of the board members at the top 300 companies were women in 2008, versus 8 percent in 2004. That's according to the European Professional Women's Network.

In the U.S., roughly 15 percent of the board members of the Fortune 500 companies are women. In China women hold roughly 5 percent of board seats, in Japan, just 1.4 percent. In today's Straight from the Street we asked people here if they think more needs to be done in CHINA to get women into positions of power in the business world.

In a recent report, the International Labour Association projected that tens of millions more people could become unemployed, and that women would be hit harder, and more severely than men.

Given that women tend to work in labor intensive export industries, that feed the global supply chain, they're among the first to lose their jobs when demand for exports in manufacturing and clothing dries up.
However, a women's group in Hefei, in Eastern China's Anhui province, has stepped up to ensure that local business women are able to weather the financial storm. Last week, three of these local entrepreneurs were offered interest free loans of around 3,000 USD, in order to help their businesses survive.

The loans, which were provided by Chinese women's organizations and the Chinese women's federation, are aimed at helping women start their own businesses and fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams.

Within the past century, women have experienced incredible advancement in the world economy. At the recent Global Summit of Women in Beijing, business delegates from all corners of the globe - from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe - gathered to meet, greet and learn from each other. BON's Kelda Yuen reports on the session and on the change women in China - and around the world - have experienced in the recent past.

The Tibetan Women's Federation recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in a conference that brought together women of all ethnicity from all corners of Tibet.

The conference's delegates and organizers painted it as chance to commemorate the gains women have made in the fifty years since the organizations founding. BON takes a closer look at those delegates, and their claims for women's progress inside Tibet.

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In China's big cities, the amount of unmarried men outnumbers single women. However, despite the abundance of choice, many of today's urban women in China are remaining single for longer than in any previous generation.

The trend has even given rise to a new term- sheng nu- used to describe Chinese women choosing not to rush into marriage.

A report in Newsweek recently said a study showed "just over one third of all college-educated American women describe themselves as very ambitious." (PIC) In China that figure was closer to two thirds. What's more, over 75 percent of women in China aspire to hold a top corporate job, compared with just over half in the U.S., and 77 percent of Chinese women participate in the workforce, compared with less than 70 percent in the U.S. So what do people here in China think? Are Chinese women really that more ambitious than their American cousins – and, if so, why? Our reporter Stella Chen went out on the streets of Beijing to find out.