Opinion | China’s political gender gap remains huge. So much for women holding up half the sky
- The roots of the problem of low female political participation lie in the depths of China’s patriarchal culture
- Party membership is a basic requirement if a woman wants to rise through the ranks of government and yet, out of 91 million members, only 28 per cent are women
“Women shine at China’s ‘two sessions’,” said a glowing Xinhua headline earlier this month. The article went on to note: “In the 13th National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, there are 742 female deputies and 440 female members respectively, marking a historic high for female representation.”
However, women still account for less than a quarter of all NPC and CPPCC members. As China inches towards greater female participation in politics, it is being outpaced by many other countries.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2020, which tracks progress towards gender equality, ranked China 106th out of 153 countries surveyed, down three places from the year before. In the latest Women’s Power Index, China was ranked 150th out of 193 UN member states in political parity.
Down among the grass roots, the representation of women on village committees was low to start with and the introduction of village elections in recent decades has led to a further decline. It has been estimated that around 1 per cent of heads of village committees are women.
How can this be? China has one of Asia’s highest rates of female participation in the workforce. Furthermore, the Communist Party has long trumpeted gender equality. Chairman Mao famously proclaimed: “Women hold up half the sky.”
