At China’s top political gathering for women, it was mostly a man who was seen and heard.

Xi Jinping, the country’s leader, sat centre stage at the opening of the National Women’s Congress. A close-up of him at the congress was splashed on the front page of the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper the next day. From the head of a large round table, Xi lectured female delegates at the closing meeting on Monday.

“We should actively foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture,” he said in a speech, adding that it was the role of party officials to influence young people’s views on “love and marriage, fertility and family”.

The Women’s Congress, held every five years, has long been a forum for the ruling Communist Party to demonstrate its commitment to women. The gesture, while mostly symbolic, has taken on more significance than ever this year, the first time in two decades that there are no women in the party’s executive policy-making body.

What was notable was how officials downplayed gender equality. They focused instead on using the gathering to press Xi’s goal for Chinese women: get married and have babies. In the past, officials had touched on the role women play at home as well as in the workforce. But in this year’s address, Xi made no mention of women at work.

The party desperately needs women to have more babies. China has been thrust into a demographic crisis as its birthrate has plummeted, causing its population to shrink for the first time since the 1960s.