Inequality Of Gender In Chinese Politics: Women's Political Participation

The nature of politics everywhere is a male-dominant sphere. In China, it is no different. While in the West, many feminists and activists are trying to pressure their government to increase more political women, in China, with a one-party government, it is in the mercy of the government to act. From the past, the status of women as a whole has been improved resulting in equal access to education and employment opportunity. However in politics, women are still the minority—accounting for only 20 percent of the seats in the country's main government body, the National People's Congress. Thus this paper is to clarify the reasons of lower number of political women and why the Chinese government keeps the percentage of women in its politics freeze at 20 percent.From findings, political women in China have faced many obstacles and biases from poor quality to inferior of men to preference of gender in order to join the political force. Reason mainly for lower number of political women is the cultural constraints such as Confucianism; and social barriers as women are expected to perform domestic duty first before taking charge of the outside home job. Furthermore the system in China itself also prevents an increase of women in politics. China, on one hand, promotes women's rights as equal as men but on the other hand, refuses to further perform or implement any policies that can encourage an increase in number of female politicians.Feminists believe that with more women brings more benefits. As representative of the whole country, the government should compose of a harmonious ratio of both genders in proportion with the population. This can lead to a better decision-making process and policies that more closely reflect citizen's concerns. Additionally it can also improve women's lives and the development of the society since women legislators tend to prioritize bills related to women's issues and interests and pay attention to social problems such as education and public health more than their male counterparts whose interests lie mainly in economics and construction. Another benefit to mention is it shows that that country is progressing toward democracy as it values true equality.Though China has performed several actions on this issue such as regulating laws and issuing White Paper and guideline for women development, there are more things left to be done. Monitoring system needs to be established and some laws need to be firmly enforced and revised. A true value of gender equality should be emphasized.Economic development plays an important role in increasing women's political participation because with higher economic development comes higher proportion of labor participation and results in a better scenario of gender equality. In China, the wealthier coastal provinces have higher number of women in the government than in the poor inland provinces. Though, statistically speaking, the impact remains small. One flaw of the economic factor is migration. With more people leaving to urban cities leaves lesser capable women and a base of female political power in the rural areas. Another factor that can encourage a higher number is an international movement. China is sensitive toward global opinions, for examples, once China was awarded to host the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, more research and women organizations increased. Combining with the UN target of reaching 30 percent of women in politics by 2015, one can hope that when it is getting close, China might act and increase more women to its NPC.To learn about the attitude and acceptance toward female cadres and female leaders among citizen, a small survey was conducted and sent out to friends of the author in university and in business sector. Another set of respondents are local residents in the author's neighborhood. Series of questions include preference of male or female boss, thoughts on female leaders and if they think in the future, China can have a female head of state. The results show that the majority believe currently female cadres are still low in quantity however when it comes to a leading position, they prefer a leader to be male. Furthermore the majority believe that female president is impossible for China due to mostly traditional constraints and political culture.