From Men-Women Equality to Gender Equality: The Zigzag Road of Women's Political Participation in China

Abstract

Men and women's equality as a focus of Marxist women's theory has become the theoretical basis for the socialist women's emancipation movement since the founding of the New China in 1949. However, the scene of equality in China has changed tremendously since the 1980s. This paper aims at facilitating a specific historical understanding of the issue of women's political participation in China and asks questions such as why the theory of men and women's equality during the 1980s appeared to be questioned? What were the key challenges before this theory and practice? Why was there a theoretical shift during the 1990s? Taking the issue of women's political participation in China as an example, we can see that the road of women's liberation has been a zigzag one and the theories and practice of gender equality have been ambiguous. My argument is that we should look for something beyond numbers and percentages when, for example, analyzing the issues of women's political participation.