Women in China

"History of women in China" redirects here. For ancient and imperial China, see Women in ancient and imperial China.
This article is about women in the present day People's Republic of China. For women in the Republic of China, see Women in Taiwan.
Women in China
A woman in rural Jiangxi
General Statistics
Maternal mortality (per 100,000)37 (2010)
Women in parliament24.2% (2013)[1]
Women over 25 with secondary education54.8% (2010)
Women in labour force67.7% (2011)
Gender Inequality Index[2]
Value0.192 (2021)
Rank48th out of 191
Global Gender Gap Index[3]
Value0.681 (2022)
Rank102nd out of 146
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Women in China make up approximately 49% of the population.[a][4] In modern China, the lives of women have changed significantly due to the late Qing dynasty reforms, the changes of the Republican period, the Chinese Civil War, and the rise of the People's Republic of China (PRC).[5] Like women in many other cultures, women in China have been historically oppressed.[6] For thousands of years, women in China lived under the patriarchal social order characterized by the Confucius teaching of "filial piety".[6]

Achievement of women's liberation has been on the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the beginning of the PRC.[6][7] Following the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong replaced the common use of the term "女人" [nüren] with "妇女" [funü] as he famously said "妇女 [funü] 能顶半边天" (Women hold up half the sky).[7][8][9][10] "妇女" [funü] is a term for labouring women, which signifies the revolutionary role that women play in the liberation of China. The first celebration of "妇女节" (International Women's Day) immediately after the establishment of CCP consolidated the representational strategies associated with "妇女" [funü].[7]

During the Mao era, many policies were carried out to promote gender equality. The New Marriage Law passed on May 1, 1950 outlawed forced marriage and concubinage.[11] The last few regional practices of foot-binding died out, with the last case of foot-binding reported in 1957.[12] The Great Leap Forward, while focusing on improving total productivity, created work opportunities for women. However, they still remained as peripheral roles and rarely climbed up to positions of decision-making.[13] The representation of women as "iron women" who worked restlessly in workplaces dismissed the unalleviated domestic burden that women were still forced to take and homogenized the individuality of women.[13][6]

In contemporary China, although women's rights in China have improved tremendously, women still suffer a lower status compared with men.[6][5] Under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, the gains of women have dropped compared to previous leaders.[5] After witnessing the growing feminist movements in China, the government under Xi shut down many activist NGOs and censored feminist platforms.[5] Feminism has been viewed by nationalists as a toxic Western ideology.[5] Xi Jinping has encouraged women to "actively foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture."[14]

  1. ^ "Women in Parliaments: World Classification". Archived from the original on 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  2. ^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  3. ^ "Global Gender Gap Report 2022" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  4. ^ "UNSD — Demographic and Social Statistics". Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e Lu, Shen. "Under Xi Jinping, Women in China Have Given Up Gains". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  6. ^ a b c d e Li, Yuhui (2000). "Women's Movement and Change of Women's Status in China". Journal of International Women's Studies. 1 (1): 30–40. Archived from the original on 2022-04-25. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
  7. ^ a b c Huang, Xin (11 July 2018). The gender legacy of the Mao era : women's life stories in contemporary China. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-7062-7. OCLC 1048747933.
  8. ^ "A Suspended Sky: Chinese Women's Changing Political Interests" (PDF). Department of Political Science, University of Iowa. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Women hold up half the sky". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 2021-01-19. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
  10. ^ "China Focus: Holding up half the sky? – People's Daily Online". People's Daily. Archived from the original on 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
  11. ^ "Revisions to the 1980 Marriage Law", China since 1949, Routledge, p. 200, 2013-11-14, doi:10.4324/9781315833408-46, ISBN 978-1-315-83340-8, retrieved 2022-11-29
  12. ^ Ko, Dorothy (2007). Cinderella's sisters : a revisionist history of footbinding. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-94140-3. OCLC 816498682. Archived from the original on 2020-01-25. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  13. ^ a b 高雨莘 (2017-09-26). "毛泽东时代，妇女真的"能顶半边天"吗？". 纽约时报中文网 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  14. ^ "China wants women to stay home and bear children". The Economist. November 9, 2023. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 2023-11-13. Retrieved 2023-11-14.


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