Rural Gender Culture Reconstruction

As the gender relation is the most basic human social relationship, thegender culture is also the basic component of the human social culture, and constantlyunder construction with social changes. So far, most of the gender culture around theworld are domi nated by patriarchy, and only a few exceptions. The change of socialand material conditions and relations of production has made the unequal genderculture, including patriarchy become unnecessary, outdated culture. In the context ofsocial transf ormation, rural gender culture in China is also faced with the need ofchange. Based on the practice and the enlig htenment of gender culture change inLueyang Shanxi and Dingzhou Hebei, the Women’s Research Center of the CentralParty School, the municipal government of Henan Dengfeng and local people havecarried out the practice and exploration about constructing equal gender culture. Theevaluation result of the exploration in the early period is good. This study based onthe exploration, puts forward paths in a planned way to promote the reconstruction ofrural gender culture of the Han nationality areas, which combine "good governance"under the government leading actors of cooperation, institutiona l change andconceptional transformation.The paper is divided into seven parts:The introduction describes the background of the topics, and analyzes thetheoretical and practical significance of this study. At the same time, it introduces thedomestic and overseas scholars’ research results, characteristics and shortages. It alsodefines the key concepts and the theoretical perspectives of the research, expounds theideas and methods of this study, the innovation and lack of this paper.The first chapter describes the overall situation of China’s rural socialtransformation and introduces the perspective of gender culture. The transformationof rural society in China not only has the common problems faced by other countriesin the transition process, but also has its own particularities because of special historyand culture, economic system of China’s rural society, thus brings some problemssuch as the differentiation of rural social groups. From the perspective of socialgender, establishing the equal rural gender culture is one of the ways to solve theseproblems, but also is one of the neglected ways. Thus it introduces gender culture,further elaborates the characteristics of the gender culture and the reconstructionneeds of the rural gender culture.The second chapter analyzes the possibilities and the basic ideas ofreconstructing rural gender culture. The history of the development of gender cultureshows that the gender culture is not only continuously changed, but also constantly tobe reconstructed. The practice of reconstructing equal gender culture in MeiWan village YiHuang Xian Jiangxi, Lueyang Shanxi and Dingzhou Hebei is a good proof.The Dengfeng’s exploration of reconstructing rural gender culture through thegovernment leading actors of cooperation provides a viable path for the reconstructionof the rural gender culture in Han nationality areas. Thus the author proposes thegeneral path of reconstructing rura l gender culture in similar areas.The third chapter emphasizes one of the ways of reconstructing rural genderculture:the changes of interactive models between gov ernment, civil societyorganizations, cadres an d the masses. Farmers in rural society have a decentralizationtradition. Through the modern functional expr essions of government, the villagersself-government organizations and other traditional organizations, as well as thefunctional explorations of new social organization and the mass organizations, we willinnovate the rural social gender system and transformthe gender perspective.The fourth chapter discusses the second path of reconstructing rural genderculture: the transf ormations of the gender concepts. The gender concepts are the coreof the gender culture, and are an integral part of the values of rural cadres and themasses. These concepts aslo regulate their behaviors. The actional exploration ofDengfeng provides an effective mechanism to promote the transformation of theconcept, that is, targeted training system of leading cadres and organization system offarmer’s ideas ascension. The change’s persistence of the gender concepts can beachieved through social mechanisms.The fifth chapter discusses the third path of reconstructing rural gender culture:institutional innovations. The macro-level policies and laws, as well as themicro-level village rules exist a phenomenon of curing the existing unequal genderculture. On the basis of a clear policy and village rules operating mechanism, itproposes the feasible paths of incorporating gender-sensitive into public policy andvillage rules, namely the establishment of the national mechanism of gender equality.The sixth chapter comments the effects of reconstructing rural gender culture inDengfeng City. It highlights the positive effects of remodeling rural gender culture,while emphasizing that the reconstruction of the rural gender culture has a long-term,complex feature. The rural gender culture should be constantly evolved with the needsof economic and social development.