BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Tenth National Women's Congress which is expected to draw a blueprint for the development of Chinese women in the coming five years, began here Tuesday morning.

President Hu Jintao and other top state leaders Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang attended the opening ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.

Premier Wen Jiabao is in Russia for a visit.

“Currently, women account for 45.4 percent of China's total employed population,” said All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) Deputy-Chairwoman Huang Qingyi, who delivered a work report on behalf of the ninth ACWF Executive Committee.

Huang said there were nearly 700,000 women models working in various circles who had greatly inspired people.

Exemplar women included Ren Changxia, a late policewoman in central Henan Province who devoted herself to her police career and died of fatigue at 40, and Song Yushui, a judge in a Beijing district court who has long been engaged in handling cases involving economic and intellectual property rights issues.

Chinese women also played larger role in the political sector. Female deputies comprised 21.33 percent of the National People's Congress (NPC), up 1.09 percentage points from the previous congress, and women make up 17.7 percent of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), up 1 percentage point.

The proportion of female deputies to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was also up two percentage points, said Huang, adding “women have become an important force pushing forward political development”.

She said the education gap between men and women has narrowed as proportions of women receiving various levels of education have increased steadily, with their mind continuing to be emancipated and concept updated and employment improved.

China's maternal mortality rate has reduced to 36.6 per 100,000 from 51.3 per 100,000 in 2003, and the infant mortality rate has dropped to 15.3 per 1,000 from 25.5 per 1,000 in 2003, according to Huang.

She said more and more women bought various social securities and women's life expectancy reached 75.25 years.

Statistics show more than 27,000 women and children rights protection agencies had been set up to handle cases involving rights infringement.

Women of ethnic minority groups and those who were religious believers were also greatly motivated to contribute to the social development, Huang said, adding mainland women groups had conduced various exchanges with their counterparts in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

International exchanges such as bilateral and multilateral visits were well under way, with the ACWF having established friendship with 697 women and children groups in 164 countries and regions.

The five-day congress will hear and discuss a work report by the Nineth Executive Committee of the ACWF, deliberate and adopt amendments to the federation's constitution, and elect the 10th ACWF Executive Committee.

ACWF Chairwoman Gu Xiulian said 1,407 delegates from across the country were present at the once-every-five-year congress. Among the 1,280 elected delegates, 1,020 of them are newly elected. Each of China's 55 ethnic minorities has at least one delegate to the congress.

Officials in charge of women affairs from Beijing and other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, ACWF former leaders and representatives from Hong Kong and Macao, also attended the congress.