The retirement age, rather whether it should be raised or not, has sparked a public debate in these times of aging population. The decision of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security that it would consider raising the retirement age for women seems to have intensified the debate.

The official retirement age for men, according to 1978 regulations, is 60. Ordinary woman workers retire at 50, and woman cadres at 55.

About 91 percent of the nearly 1.47 million people who responded to an online survey on Qq.com last year said the retirement age should not be raised. Many people even say that early retirement benefits women.

But regulations on retirement were implemented when China launched its reform and opening-up, and when labor-intensive industries were expected to, and did, drive the economy. And since men have certain physical advantages over women, they were regulated to retire at a later age. Also, the family planning policy was yet to be implemented in the late 1970s, and women had more parental and other responsibilities because a normal family then had several children.

The times and role of women, however, have changed drastically in the past three decades, and so too must the regulations, says Liu Minghui, a professor of law at China Women's University. "Women (in the 1970s) were less educated and many of them started working at an early age and had to endure a tough working life," so early retirement came as a relief for them. Plus, we should not forget that the average life expectancy in the 1970s was just about 60 years.

Today, the average life expectancy in China is 71 for men and 74 for women (according to World Health Organization's data for 2007). Apart from living longer than men, women today are also better educated, says Liu, who specializes in labor law and works as part-time lawyer to provide legal and other help to working women.

Generally speaking, a woman in her 50s today is at the prime of her career and relatively free of parental duties because her single son/daughter is expected to have grown up by then. Thanks to the experience she would have gathered, a woman in her 50s is qualified enough and ready to take up greater responsibilities. But she cannot, because she has to retire.

Liu, who is in her mid-50s, criticizes the gender bias in the regulations. It is "outdated, causes huge financial loss to women and blocks their career path". People opposed to lifting women's retirement age do not see the financial loss they suffer. One of Liu's clients - an accountant with a Shanghai-based media outlet - says she will lose about 963,000 yuan ($147,000) if she retires at 50 instead of 55. The accountant is right because "pension today is paid according to the local wage level", Liu says.

"Earlier, household incomes used to be humble and comprised only wages," but they have risen drastically over the past three decades, and in recent years, labor authorities at different levels have raised salary levels further. "Employees now have access to other sources of income, including subsidies and bonus, too." The average pay is significantly higher today. According to the Beijing municipal bureau of labor and social security, for instance, the city's average wage rose from 28,348 yuan a year in 2004 to 48,444 yuan in 2009.