Women are encouraged to challenge the impossible

Successful women from the worlds of business and politics shared their experiences over the weekend as they encouraged other females to challenge the impossible and seek success.

Barbara Woodward, the Great Britain's first female ambassador to China, said the UK had launched in the Inspiring Woman in China in 2013 to help Chinese women face challenges and reach for success from an early age. It now runs projects in 56 schools.

"In the future, our aim is to have more than 10,000 volunteers to help more than 100,000 students in 1,000 schools in China," she said.

She was speaking in Beijing on April 8 at the 9th annual Business Mulan Meeting, co-hosted by the China Entrepreneur magazine and China Entrep Mulan Club.

He Zhenhong, director of the China Entrepreneur magazine, said that in 2016 there were about 86 Chinese companies with a market value of more than 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion), but only four of them had a women as chairman or CEO - less than 5 percent.

She said that women were an unexploited resource in society but in the future they would play a more important role in social and economic development.

GOME Electrical Appliances CEO Du Juan shared her experiences of leading the company's development and gave advice on how to deal with career and personal setbacks.

"We will experience many failures in life and every time we do it is important to stay strong and positive and never give up," she said. "The road to success is never easy and it is important to change your stumbling blocks to stepping stones."