Month: March 2017

http://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia-women-china/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/young-chinese-women-are-committing-suicide-at-a-terrifying-rate/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/08/world/asia/china-gender-discrimination/

http://humansexualitygroup4.weebly.com/gender-roles.html

http://www.clb.org.hk/content/workplace-discrimination

http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2015/12/women-in-china-hope-to-take-part-in-politics

http://time.com/4598999/china-one-child-policy-family-planning/

http://nypost.com/2016/01/03/how-chinas-pregnancy-police-brutally-enforced-the-one-child-policy/

http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/countries/china/eliminating-violence-against-women

http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/countries/china/gender-responsive-governance-and-womens-political-empowerment

http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2012/03/toilet-parityhttp://

www.feminisminchina.com

http://www.allure.com/story/liu-wen-model-interview

http://www.vogue.com/article/liu-wen-changing-beauty-ideals

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-09/22/content_21946949_7.htm

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/chinalic/2015-11/30/content_22596236.htm

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/what-happens-when-your-friends-get-abducted-and-sold-into-marriage

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/inside-the-terrifying-absurd-world-of-a-womens-rights-activist-in-china

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2015-09/23/content_21961329.htm

http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/about/16/55

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/china-feminist-five

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1276981/inside-world-10-yuan-sex-worker

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/inside-the-terrifying-absurd-world-of-a-womens-rights-activist-in-china

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/31/china-s-sex-worker-warrior-ye-haiyan-fights-for-prostitutes-rights.html

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2016/03/the-road-to-hainan

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/17/chinas-feminist-five-this-is-the-worst-crackdown-on-lawyers-activists-and-scholars-in-decades

http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.uoregon.edu/stable/313197?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents29-1.htm

http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/pdf/rr13-808.pdf

 https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/role-women-china/

 

 “Free The Campaigners”

In March 2015 a group of five random women (amongst others) were detained the day before International Women’s Day in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Busted for the intent of passing out stickers on public transportation regarding sexual harassment. Li Maizi (whose birth name is Li Tingting), Wei Tingting, Zheng Churan, Wu Rongrong, and Wang Man were the girls names which quickly became known due to the response of the government itself. In interrogation, they pressed Li Maizi for being a spy for foreign forces, referring to the United States: “What? I work on gender equality—now you’re calling me a spy?” Li said. Acknowledging the political environment pressures, Li suggests new methods for pushing feminist movements in China, already having made an impact.

It is said that the girl’s activities probably would have slid under the radar, but with the resistance of government, “the Chinese government itself provided the spark for the creation of a powerful new symbol of feminist dissent against a patriarchal, authoritarian state: China’s “Feminist Five.”” This feminist movement challenged the Communist Party’s idea (and reliance) on the traditional and feminine roles of women, providing a major threat to the paternalistic state. Another one of the five girls, Zheng, now works on building solidarity between middle-class feminists and working-class women. She highlights consumerism and elite women as the most acceptable form of feminism.  who is now working on ways to build solidarity between middle-class feminists and working-class women. In this kind of political environment, the most acceptable form of feminism revolves around consumerism and elite women. This is politically safer and draws a path goal oriented at doing something for the less educated. 

By 2012 around 100 university-educated feminists were regularly participating in performance art and activism across the country to denounce growing gender inequality driven by market reforms. Areas they focused on were not overly politically sensitive, but debate worthy: domestic violence (China had no law regarding this until 2016), sexual harassment, sex discrimination in the work/school place, and insufficient toilets for women (Occupy Toilet movement). Persistence steered some of the women to relocate to New York to continue the movement with less interferance from the Chinese Government. One of the girls, Lu Pin, reflects on how the feminist movement needs an established presence outside of China, thus the creation of the first ever Chinese women’s rights group ran out of the United States. Pin expresses the goal and vision of the group (Transnational allies), consisting of three of the five girls, wanting to raise money for feminist causes as well as be a reliable resource for Chinese-language information regarding women’s rights in China.

In current times, Lu Pin still holds close friendships with a substantial amount of China’s core feminist activists. Quoting Virginia Woolf, Lu Pin says, “As a woman I have no country.” She believes that Chinese feminists—whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere—can form alliances that cross national boundaries. “If we don’t set up this group in the U.S., China’s feminist movement will become too passive. The position of our core activists is extremely fragile and we don’t know when the police will come and arrest someone again—it could be today or tomorrow,” she says. Simply put, the fight continues, stronger than ever with it’s introspective mindset following transnational feminism’s.

 Li Maizi (left) protesting against domestic violence in Bejing in 2012- Captured by Media Monitor for Women Network

The “Women of China” website is a website from Chinese women that want to give other Chinese women “a window into our country from a women’s perspective, as well as be a comprehensive resource for gender development and women’s studies professionals.” The main goal of the website is to try and place Chinese women onto the global stage by highlighting women’s daily struggle within the country. “Women of China” is sponsored by All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), a larger organization that works within the Chinese government to enact change, as well as a grassroots organization to create change in the village and district levels.

“Women of China” reports on many things, but mainly news, projects and campaigns, issues, agencies and organizations, data and research, policies and laws, as well as culture, photos and special coverage concerning ACWF organizations reporting to the globe with a focus on Chinese voices. Women’s voices in China are the voices being expressed, as well as it is women’s stories being told for women. By sharing this on a global platform over the internet, that enables “Women of China” and the ACWF to share Chinese women’s experiences to reaches that it may not have otherwise been able to reach.

In 2015, China’s cabinet released an address titled “Gender Equality and Women’s Development in China that outlined and highlighted the actions and policies that China’s government enacted to the cause of equality for women within China’s borders. Specifically, the address highlighted various institutional approaches, economic influences, access to education as well as health services, among others.

Institutionally, in 1990 China created the “National Working Committee on Children and Women.” The committee’s main purpose it to place pressure on China’s internal departments to promote gender equality and women’s development. Along with this, China has put continuous increasing emphasis on women’s development in some of their last released “five year plans.” China also, improved its gender statistics system that records women’s conditions throughout China.

Economically, China has worked to promote equal participation in the country’s economic development. Particularly by focusing on poverty amongst women. China has laws in place that ensure equal employment right for women, for example through “Special Regulations on Labor Protection of Female Employees”. The State also assists those seeking employment and those who are starting their own business through a type of guaranteed loan. This structure is geared specifically to “the development of housekeeping services in urban areas and handicrafts, such as weaving and knitting, in rural areas.” the state also has regulations that protects rural women’s right to land.

Educationally, China has implemented measures to improve equality in education through the “Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China” aimed at improving women’s education. Other measures allocate special funds to decrease the amount of illiterate women through increased access to vocational education and skill learning as well as minorities given increased access to schooling. The increase of access to education is coming through the fact that gender equality spreading in teaching and scientific research.

With women’s health, China has implemented maternal and child health care programs through a network system of service put in place made made to be more equitable and accessible. The country has also induced subsidized child births in rural hospitals to increase hospital birth rates and increase infant health. Along with the increase in hospital birth rates, access to cervical and breast cancer exams in rural areas has also increased.

To eliminate traditional gender roles completely in China is going to take time. The idea that men are strong, and women are weak contributes heavily to the gender gap. A core value in Chinese culture is respect for ones elders such as parents or grandparents, which makes it difficult to challenge social norms as it may be viewed as disrespectful. In order to reconstruction relative norms and beliefs social change amongst men and women together will amplify results. Three steps of actions that can equalize the playing field between men and women as listed:

Step 1: Improve women’s socioeconomic status, which is mostly done through education. For example, in 1982 the percentage for receiving postsecondary education was 1.24% for men and 0.64% for women. Though this has improved a large amount for women to 5.63% it still is not nearly what it should be.

Step 2: Employment in the workforce. On average women in the workforce earn 35% less than men for the same work. Some companies will choose to only hire women who have had children to avoid maternity leave. From this employers sometimes use maternity leave to deny women of employment. In a survey, 72% of women stated they were not hired due to gender discrimination.

Step 3: Change marriage behavior in China by increasing the age at which a woman elopes. The practice of women marrying by age 20, a man of higher social status has been a traditional practice. In previous years this was achieved by women marrying men with a higher education obtain a stable future. If women can gain access to higher levels of education, less pressure will be put on them to marry young and rely on a husband.

Laws and regulations protecting women’s rights and interests have been constantly improved. More than twenty laws and regulations have been revised including the Marriage Law, Population and Family Planning Law, Employment Promotion Law, Organic Law of the Villagers Committees, Social Insurance Law, Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, and Special Regulations on the Labor Protection of Female Employees. In addition to protecting women’s rights, progress has been made in legislation addressing violence against women. Twenty-nine provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have formulated local regulations or policies to prevent and prohibit domestic violence. 

Law enforcement has been enhanced to protect women’s rights and interests. The NPC Standing Committee has put together great importance to law enforcement inspection and confined research on the enforcement of the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and related issues, and urged government departments at all levels to strictly enforce the law.

The Amendment IX to the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China approved in August 2015 strengthened protection of women, especially of girls under the age of 14, and specified harsher punishments for the crimes of raping girls under the age of 14 and abducting and trafficking in women and children.The State Council issued China’s Action Plan Against Human Trafficking (2013-2020).  Improving the the mechanism of inter-departmental coordination.

Introduced in 1979, the one child policy was put in place by China’s communist government with the belief that if would reduce the number of mouths the People’s Republic would have to feed. China abandoned its One Child Policy in late 2015 and raised the limit to 2 children in an effort to solve its aging population problem.
Effects of One Child Policy:
120 male births for every 100 female.
Aging population
Lower fertility rates with an increase in women’s education
But even with a looser two-child limit there were still rules that people found problematic, such as a requirement throughout the 1990s that women be sterilized after the birth of a second child, or a requirement that births must be spaced at least five years apart.
In 1983, just one year, China sterilized over 20 million people, more than the combined population of the three largest US cities, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
A mass sterilization campaign for close to 10,000 people was held in Puning City, Guangdong, as recently as 2010. According to Amnesty International, almost 1,400 relatives of couples targeted for sterilization were detained, to pressure these couples to consent.

Occupy Toilets

Young women in China were tired of waiting in long lines to use the restrooms; to gain attention on this issue woman began to go to occupy men’s restrooms. The goal of this movement was to have the government increase the size of washroom facilities, to help in lowering the waiting time. In 20 states in the USA laws have been passed to create a balance between men and women for waiting in line for toilets, this is what the women ultimately wanted.

Shaving One’s Head

Women started shaving their heads to bring awareness to certain issues. Hair holds a symbolic value in Chinese culture, having a shaved head means breaking from the stereotypical image of a women. They used this “shocking” imagery to promote issues such as domestic violence, women having to perform at higher levels than men to gain admission in universities and sexual harassment.

Do You Hear the Women Sing

Women sang a rendition of Les Misérables’ “Do You Hear the People Sing”, which they then turned into “Do You Hear the Women Sing”. Women sang this on commuter trains and gave out pamphlets to bring awareness to sexual violence.

Vagina She Wrote

Women at a University in China began posting pictures of themselves on the internet saying “my vagina wants freedom” and other slogans to promote the importance of consent, the signs were made for an upcoming performance of the vagina monologues. These post quickly gained attention, one of the reasons being that vagina is a taboo word in China. The women’s post gained a lot of backlash and many were “Slut-Shamed”.

Women in China are creating their own movements to acknowledge the problems women face. The end goal of many of these movements is to create gender equality and break away from traditional gender norms.  As non-threatening and reasonable these movements are they are met with backlash. Parents don’t want their daughters to be seen in this light because strong women do not marry well, and being a wife and mother is an important task that women are expected to take on. The word feminist is also a word that women are afraid to identify with, because feminist can’t get married. Each time a woman becomes vocal about an issue they are breaking away from the norms that state that women should be reserved and “mother-like”.

~~~

 The Road from Hainan’ portrays activist Ye Haiyan as she tries to seek justice for six sexually abused elementary school girls

In China, activism is a sensitive word, hard to even come by someone who identifies as one. The assumption is that activism is following an anti-government sentiment, or is just disregarded and labeled as crazy. The media depicts activists as mentally ill, extremists, and unordinary to the point where the “average” person wouldn’t want to involve themselves. To be a political activist in China, a women at that, fights the repression tactics of the Chinese government with the goal driven at future reform. A well known activist in China by the name of Ye Haiyan has been targeted by the government countless times: “relentlessly pursued, intimidated, beaten, evicted, and detained”. Her efforts included the protesting of the non-conviction of a rape case in Hainan where she was arrested, and the Ten Yuan Brothel action, done with the intent of bringing awareness to the working conditions of sex workers, thus offering sex for free for a period of time. Ye advocated for legalizing prostitution, arguing that with it legal, the industry would be regulated therefor sex workers would be protected.

It is hard for awareness to spread when under no circumstance can the women of this brothel speak to journalists: “The police have been tailing journalists until they leave Bobai. If sex workers were found to be talking to a reporter, they would be arrested and fined and the whole sex shop would be raided and shut down. Many would lose their jobs,” said a local rights activist who claimed to have been threatened by a senior police inspector.”

When asked in an interview if Ye was targeted by parties other than government officials, she responded with information on corruption and resistance in China: “A government official or police officer can personally go to a friend in the community and say, “Hey, I have a part-time job for you.” There is also an official community organization that exists in China called the “Stability Maintenance Team”. Ye was featured in Hooligan Sparrow (documentary about the Chinese government’s relentless pursuit of activist Ye Haiyan) which was the opening selection at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York.

Time Line Highlights:

“After getting a divorce from her husband, the single mother, along with her young daughter, took up an offer to stay at the home of several sex workers in 2003. It was here that she began to hear the sad stories of these young women. The experience prompted her to start a website in 2005 to speak out for sex workers.”

“In 2006 she established the China Grassroots Women’s Rights Center in Wuhan. She sold Chinese medicine and wrote articles to earn money to keep the organization running, but piled up a debt of some 30,000 yuan (about $4,700). Ye tried to register as an NGO, but could not find a government agency to support her organization, which was a requirement for registration. She jokingly says she thought of turning to prostitution to earn money.”

“The police began to notice Ye in 2009, worried about her advocacy of the rights of women, and they began to invite her for tea, a euphemism for interrogation. This monthly process continued until 2011, when she was forced to leave Wuhan to return to Guangxi, the place where she had been married.”

“In the summer of 2010, Ye worked with sex workers in her hometown to organize what is believed to have been the first protest of its kind when a number of the women began asking people to sign a petition calling for an end to discrimination against sex workers and the revocation of laws against prostitution.”

-Cassie Harvey

At the age of 27, Liao Bin was elected to represent as the Head of her Village Committee. She focuses on building the economy of the village and cares for the children who are often left behind by migrant workers. Not only is she active in the administrative work but she also goes down to other villages to interact with the people and to hear about their concerns. To top of her hard work, she organizes various training programs within the villages for people to have an opportunity to gain skills that are crucial to know in society. Liao Bin decided to be more active in local governance after participating in the trainings on leadership and political participation for women.

Another development within China happen between the years of 2011-2015 when the All-China Women’s Federation program aimed to improve laws and policies in order to increase the representation of women in the local government.

Hunan China has had many leadership trainings where women learned management skills and campaigning. Not only were women working together, but they were also working with men. This positive effect on the community led to a powerful rise in the number of women operating in politics. Due to the significant development in Hunan, it had a domino effect on