Page 128 - Chinese Woman Living and Working

WOMEN’S POLITICAL WORK AND ‘WOMEN’S WORK’ 115
4 Bring into full play the role of women’s federations at all levels in democratic
participation and democratic supervision, and ensure that they are enabled to play
their role as a bridge to link the masses of women, and as a major channel to convey
women’s opinions and suggestions.
5 Give great importance to the opinions and suggestions of women’s federations about
the training and selection of cadres from among women, and about women’s
political participation and political discussions (State Council 2001).

Where two of the strategies argue for the increased involvement of women in general—
and indeed suggest that an affirmative action policy will be implemented—it remains to
be seen whether women politicians outside of the ‘women’s women’ rubric achieve entry
into formal politics in greater numbers.
Women politicians are overwhelmingly concentrated in the social welfare aspects of
government. For example, in 2001, of the 463 women mayors serving China’s 668 city
governments, 56.2 per cent drew their expertise from culture, education and health.
Only 9.5 per cent had a financial and economic background, 2.8 per cent had expertise
from industry and agriculture and 4.4 per cent identified their background experience as
urban construction (Wang Yinpeng 2001:14). Wang identifies as a major obstacle to the
promotion of women’s participation the fact that ‘Women make up a relatively small
proportion in high-ranking decision-making bodies…on economic management’ (Wang
Yinpeng 2001:16). Moreover, Rosen has noted that the close identification of women
with the ‘soft’ aspects of government has reduced their appeal at the county elections.
‘Cadres engaged in industry or agriculture can produce “tangible” results visible to all. For
those in “softer” jobs like culture and education, it is more difficult to “quantify” their
achievements. Voters doubted such cadres had strong enough decision- and policy-making
abilities’ (Rosen 1995:327).
Academic commentators have expressed grave concern about the rates of women’s
participation in politics, which have declined as a result of the liberalization of the Chinese
political scene since the start of the 1980s. Shi Tianjian describes how the electoral system
has changed over the years since 1979. In that year limited-choice elections were held
within some enterprises and the National People’s Congress introduced new electoral laws
for the Local People’s Congresses that ‘required each precinct to offer voters a choice of
one and a half to two times the number of deputies to be elected’ (Shi Tianjian
1999:1116). Further liberalization followed in 1982 with the abolition of the People’s
Communes and their replacement with Village Committees. In 1987 it was decreed that all
members of these committees should be directly elected (Shi Tianjian 1999:1117).
Although there are still problems with the validity and operation of these ballots, there
has been a marked increase in freedom of choice since 1980. However, women CCP
members could no longer be guaranteed a place in the Local People’s Congress by dint of
their Party membership.
Moreover, the liberalization weakened some of the previously protective measures—
such as special quotas and targets for women. Jacka explains how there was a relaxation in
the system of ‘targets and quotas’ for women delegates in the villages and counties as a
direct result of the electoral changes of the reform period. Over the course of the 1980s