Author: bwells4@uoregon.edu

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.

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