All-China Women Research Articles

Mental health and well-being in older women in China: implications from the Andersen model

BackgroundMental health and well-being among older women is an important topic due to the feminization of later life as women tend to have longer life expectancy resulting in elderly women being more advanced in age and outnumbering men. Older women generally play a key role in their families lifelong and mostly depend on social support from their family and close friends in older age to cope with any limitations they face as a result of age-related changes in their health and functional ability.MethodsWe examine which factors predict mental health and well-being in older women using the Third Wave of the 2010 Female Social Status Survey conducted by the All-China Women’s Federation (n = 3527). Applying the Andersen Model, regression analysis exploring predisposing, enabling and health need variables were tested using SPSS version 22 predicting a mental health scale.ResultsResults showed that living with a spouse was not a significant predictor of mental health for women, while it was for men (b = − 1.2, p < .01), ownership of property is significant only for men (b = −.96, p < .05), whereas women’s mental health is more strongly predicted by current exercise (b = −.89, p < .01) and participation in leisure activities (b = −.69, p < .001). Close relationships with neighbors, qualifying for old-age benefit programs and being in better overall health supports positive mental health for both men and women. Reporting delayed medical treatment is associated with a negative impact on mental health for men, but oddly women who report the same actually report better mental health, perhaps suggesting older women take pride in their self-sacrifice.ConclusionThe findings of this study suggest that gender differences in wealth, living alone, and social participation are interpreted differently by women, who have longer lives with generally fewer material resources. Enabling factors tend to be more associated with financial factors for men, while women rely on a social convoy to thrive longer than their male counterparts.

“Being a Good Daughter of the Party”?

Like other socialist institutions surviving in China’s market reforms, the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF or WF when referring to its local branches), as the only state-sponsored organisation representing women’s interests, has been constantly refashioning itself to meet new existential challenges. In July 2015, the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party commanded a new wave of mass organisational reforms, in which the Women’s Federation’s alienation from the grassroots and a weakening representation of women’s interests were questioned. After three years of intensive reform, are the local structures of the ACWF being substantially improved to reconnect to its mass base? Drawing from extensive fieldwork in three provinces and a neo-institutional analysis, this article argues that in the short term, although the reform serves principally as a consolidation of Party authority, local Women’s Federations are creatively using the reform to expand their popular base and broaden their representativeness. In the long term, however, local WFs are facing unreformed institutional problems such as political marginalisation, bureaucratisation, and ineffective implementation, which stagnate further development of China’s state feminism.

Association between supporting child and elder abuse in China

Objective: To examine the association between child-supporting from their folks and elder abuse in China so as to provide evidence for prevention and control of elder abuse. Methods: Based on the third survey on the Status of Chinese women, organized by the All-China Women's Federation and the National Bureau of Statistics, 7 159 residents aged 65 and older were included and general information on supporting child and elder abuse were gathered. Chi-square test and logistic regression were used to investigate the association between supporting child from elderly and elder abuse. Results: The overall prevalence of elder abuse was 6.71%. Risks of elder people being abused by family numbers varied from different supporting child situations. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, ORs for the elderly appeared as follows: OR=1.99 (95%CI: 1.56-2.54) for those who only providing support to male children; OR=2.07 (95%CI: 1.51-3.79) for those only providing support to the female offspring and OR=2.32 (95% CI: 1.72-3.13) for those who did not support their children regardless of their sex identity. Elderly who provided support to their children on both sexes were exposed to lower risk of being abused than those who only supporting their male offspring. There was no significant difference appearing on the risk of elder abuse between those elderly who only supporting the male (OR=1.00) or the female offspring (OR=1.04, 95% CI: 0.63-1.71), among all the participants in our study. However, such associations were different in urban and rural areas. Conclusions: High prevalence of abuse was seen in China. The pattern of supporting child was associated with risk of elder abuse. Elderly who showed poor support to their children were under higher risk of being abused by their family members.

Deliberative Democracy: A Probe into Female Interests Demands and Response Mechanism in Shanghai

Last year, deliberative democracy in mass organization gained great importance in China, which made new demands on the All-China Women’s Federation in representing and integrating the female interests, and also provided it new opportunities to strengthen its function in community governance. Facing the new characteristics, the authors analyze how the Shanghai Women’s Federation develops the response route and mechanism of female interests from the perspective of deliberative body, content and approach.

The State, the All-China Women`s Federation, and the Women`s Rights Movement : The Fragmentation of State Feminism in the PRC, 1920-1995

International Women’s Day, 2015 was marked by a clash between women’s rights organizations and the state in China, drawing academic attention to research on state feminism in the PRC. This article argues an inherent conflict exists between the goal of the Chinese Communist Party to maintain power, the goals of the All-China Women’s Federation and the needs and realities of the women’s rights movement in China. It traces the development of the alliance between the Chinese Communist Party and the women’s rights movement since inception in the 1920s up to 1995. In the process the article takes issue with the assumption of monolithic state feminism in not only the PRC context but also in socialist state feminism, showing that the conflicting governmental and societal actors who make up the process of state feminist policy-making and implementation exhibit fragmentation, rather than unity. This analysis holds important implications for the nature of state-society relations in China, state feminism in socialist regimes, and the transnational women’s rights movement.

Social work capacity building in China: what to do and how?

Social work professional training in China is newly developed in the past decade. How to design and deliver specific training to meet the specific needs of social service professionals has been a crucial issue to social work educators in China. In 2004, China Women's University, in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba, started the project ‘Building human capacity: Social work with rural women in China’ funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). One of the main goals of project is to build social work professional capacity of the staff in the All-China Women's Federation (Women's Federation), so that they can provide service of better quality to women. In this paper, based on the data collected in the project sites, the authors will concentrate on what kind of training the Women's Federation staff received, and how they integrated that knowledge into their daily work. The authors will also suggest some implications for social work professional training for non-professionals in the future.

Raising women's status in the national policy of China

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. The author is the director of Women's Studies Institute of China, All-China Women's Federation. 2. State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China ‘Gender Equality and the Status of Women's Development in China’ White Paper, August 2005. Additional informationNotes on contributorsLin Tan1

From the Heyang Model to the Shaanxi Model: Action Research on Women's Participation in Village Governance

AbstractIn the fifth village elections in 2003 in Shaanxi province only 184 women were elected as village heads, a mere 0.6 per cent of the total. By the sixth elections in 2006 the number had almost doubled, and by the seventh elections in 2009 it had increased to 544. Together with the women on village Party committees, there were now 1,193 women village officials throughout the province, 4.5 per cent of the total. In contrast to leading women cadres within the formal structures of the political system, these village heads owed their positions not to nomination by upper levels of Party and government leadership but to success in fiercely competitive elections. Their success was the result of a grass-roots movement launched by a civil organization, the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family, to mobilize women's political participation. Their activities and trajectories had an impact on the local gender division of labour and entrenched gender attitudes that far surpassed the numbers alone. This article examines the collaboration between the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family and the All-China Women's Federation to mobilize women's political participation in Heyang county, Shaanxi province. It particularly focuses on the role of the Research Association in drawing on international feminist practices of women's empowerment to provide participatory based gender training courses as the key to persuading women to confront local and institutional resistance. Collaboration between the Research Association and the Women's Federation opened up access to significant resources both within and outside the system, creating new spaces for the articulation and protection of women's rights. Originating in a grass-roots movement, this collaboration can be seen as an instance of China's contemporary movement for gender equality.

DUIHUA (DIALOGUE) IN-BETWEEN

This paper discusses the recent encounters of ‘feminism’ as a travelling concept in mainland China. Against the backdrop of its century-long women's movement and the more recent establishment of women's studies since the 1980s, questions relating to the meanings of feminism are analysed through the problematic of translation. The different Chinese words deployed have ranged all the way from an earlier more directly political emphasis on women's rights and equality (nuquan zhuyi) to highlighting women's difference or femininity (nuxing zhuyi). In the immediate years following the Beijing Conference of 1995, major debates focused on whether the term ‘feminism’ was meaningful for Chinese women to begin with, but these then shifted from the question of whether it ought to be used at all, to how it should be translated. Three different kinds of translators have been critical during the 1980s and 1990s in shaping the dialogue on feminism – the official state-supported women's organization, the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), with its headquarters in Beijing; Chinese women's studies scholars and activists living in mainland China; and the Chinese Society for Women's Studies (CSWS), based in the United States, whose email discussions have included diverse opinions and viewpoints from other parts of the world.

Dilemmas of Inside Agitators: Chinese State Feminists in 1957

In 1957 the All-China Women's Federation shifted its emphasis on gender equality and embraced a conservative theme “diligently, thriftily build the country, and diligently, thriftily manage the family” for its work report at the Third National Women's Assembly. Based on archival research and interviews, this article examines gender contestations in the CCP's central power structure and argues that formation of the conservative line was a result of strategic manoeuvres by the top women's federation leaders and Deng Xiaoping with the goal of sustaining a gender-based organization in a time of political turbulence. The article emphasizes the importance of informal relations in the formal decision-making process. Informal relations do not fall in the usual analytical categories neatly and defy historical analysis with little historical evidence for empirical studies. Yet they can be crucial in determining historical events, as is demonstrated in the article.

Women's Political Participation in China: in whose interests elections?

This article takes up the issue of women's political participation in village committees in China. Of interest is the decline in and continuing low level of women's political participation in village governance structures in the reform period, and particularly following the widespread introduction of competitive village elections since 1988. The dominant explanation given for women's numerical under-representation in village committees, and in politics more generally, focuses on women's lack of self-confidence, which inhibits them from standing as candidates, and on the enduring drag of ‘feudal’ attitudes, which construct women as inferior to men, and therefore not capable of leadership. These two factors combined have in turn a material effect, as son-preference advantages boys in access to basic schooling, who thus, particularly in poorer rural areas, end up with higher levels of education, and greater opportunities in waged employment. The common solution adopted by the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), China's largest women's organisation, lies in a two-pronged attack: first in the ideological realm, targeting men and women's sexist attitudes and concomitantly promoting a discourse of equality, and second, in the material realm by raising women's skills. It is argued here that this dominant text on women's under-representation in village committees masks a more complex conjuncture of variables that shape women's position in local politics. Social practices, economic structures, institutional norms and procedures, and political culture all prey on, revitalise and reproduce gendered notions of the appropriate place of women and men in political life.

“Every Peasant Girl Knows How to Sweep!”: Sweeping Women Workers in Hefei, China

ABSTRACT This paper is a qualitative study investigating the working lives of twenty-six Chinese sweeping women workers in Hefei, Anhui Province, in the P. R. of China. Most participants were illiterate peasant women called nongmingong, migrants from the Chinese countryside. The study's methodology was a project called reframing suggested by Tuhiwai-Smith (1999), used for researching indigenous populations. The sweeping workers suggested that illiteracy was at the root of their employment problems. Policy and taxation reform initiatives by the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) and the Ministry of Education in the Chinese Party of China Central Committee addressing the formal and informal educational needs of poor women nongmingong are recommended.

Women's Organizations and Civil Society in China Making a Difference

This article explores the changing terrain of women's organizations in the reform period in China. It identifies the internal and external factors which have triggered both changes within the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), the officially designated mass organization representing women's interests, as well as the emergence of new, more autonomous women's organizations. It looks closely at the influence of these organizations on government policy. While the ACWF is particularly well positioned, as a Party organization, to influence policy, the ability of new women's organizations to bring about policy change is more limited. Through the study of women's organizations the article draws broader conclusions about the changing nature of civil society in China. Though women's organizations do not have political change as their prime organizational motive, they are nevertheless symbolically important. As occupiers of non- governmental organizational space and as components of a critical public sphere, they have implicit political agency, and as such, are as much makers of herstory as its product.

Special announcement on family planning and reproductive health in China

On June 5-9 2001 the International Conference on the Quality of Care for Family Planning Reproductive Health and the Three China National Comprehensive Programs (IC-ECQ/3NCPs) was conducted in Beijing China. Co-sponsored by Chinas State Family Planning Commission (SFPC) and WHO the meeting aimed to promote the 3NCPs improve the programs planning and execution and increase their support domestically and internationally. During the conference where more than 70 representatives participated SFPC introduced and detailed the 3NCPs. The 3NCPs emphasize the principle that respect for human individual is the key factor and focus on the needs of citizens. Hence this paper discusses the 3NCPs namely 1) Program for Improving the Quality of Contraceptive Care; 2) the Healthy Baby Promoting Program; and 3) the Reproductive Tract Infections Intervention Program.

Women of China: Economic and Social Transformation (review)

Reviewed by: Women of China: Economic and Social Transformation Sarah L. Anderson (bio) Jackie West, Zhao Minghua, Chang Xiangqun, and Cheng Yuan, editors. Women of China: Economic and Social Transformation. Foreword by Elisabeth Croll. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. xxi, 238 pp. Hardcover $65.00, ISBN 0-312-22441-9. Women of China: Economic and Social Transformation is a collection of ten studies that explore the impact of state reform on the lives of women. The book begins with a concise foreword by Elisabeth Croll, in which she states: "In a range of interpretations, including some powerful and eloquent critiques, the chapters focus on the changing role of the state and the economy in reform and the repercussions on women's lives and work, both positive and negative" (p. xii). Croll also provides the reader with a summary of the chapters that follow. Editors Jackie West, Zhao Minghua, Chang Xiangqun, and Cheng Yuan use the impact of state reform on the lives of women as the starting point for a rich discussion of how social and economic reforms affect the lives of women. The studies presented are both quantitative and qualitative in nature, challenging "the generally stereotypical and often benign view of reform held in the West" (p. 4) and "documenting the differences between women and men but also differences among women themselves" (p. 15). These studies dispute common preconceptions about the relationship between reform and its effects, and the reader is thus challenged to comprehend the breadth and depth of that relationship. As stated by Jackie West and Zhao Minghua in the introduction, this book has two themes: "women's relation to politics and the development of feminist perspectives" (p. 14). One of the challenges of editing a collection like this is to ensure that each contribution will relate to the broader themes of the book as a whole. The editors have met this challenge admirably. Each essay, in addition to examining its own subject in detail, contributes to the broader exploration of women's relation to politics and to the development of feminist perspectives. The book is organized into four parts. In part 1, "Political and Economic Transitions," Wang Qi and Zhang Heather Xiaoquan discuss the relationship of women to political and economic reforms. In part 2, "Gender, Migration and Labour Markets," Song Lina, Huang Xiyi, and Zhao Minghua explore the role of women as workers and the relationship between female labor and state reform. Mu Aiping, Chang Xiangqun, and Zhang Mei discuss the position of women within the family in a diverse collection of essays in part 3, "Family and Household Relations." In part 4, "Organising for Change," Shang Xiaoyuan and Min Dongchao study the role of women in the public sphere and the development of women's studies in the People's Republic of China. [End Page 266] The issue of women's representation in politics is tackled right off by Wang Qi in "State-Society Relations and Women's Political Participation," which focuses on "the wax and wane of women's representation in line with the fluctuations in state-society relations" (p. 20). Wang uses the term "women's representation" to mean "the presence of women in the party-state organs" (p. 21). This essay provides a concise history of the relationship between the state and society and how this relationship has affected women. The general trend that can be discerned from this brief account is that women's representation in politics was initiated under the auspices of the state, women cadres being recruited by the state through the All-China Women's Federation. With the advent of reform, women's political participation as cadres began to decline, as it was "no longer acceptable for family life to be sacrificed for a political career" (p. 32). Wang postulates that family care, seen as women's responsibility, regained importance in the reform era, and influenced the ability of women to participate in politics. While the numbers of women cadres were on the decline, nongovernmental women's studies programs were burgeoning. It is suggested that the two main ways women participate in politics—as a cadre in the All-China Women's Federation or as...

Post-Beijing reflections: Creating ripples, but not waves in China

Abstract Media coverage of the Fourth World Conference on Women tended to focus on the tight security arrangements in China and the restrictions on expression at the conference site, at the expense of the principal themes debated such as equality, development, and peace. Furthermore, reporters tended to highlight the problems of human rights abuse and the controversial themes of Tibet and family planning at the expense of a consideration of the impact of the event on gender policy and organisation in China. It is the purpose of this article to add another dimension to our understanding of the value of the Conference and in particular to explore the impact of this grand meeting on women's organisations in China. The article begins with a general discussion of the role of state women's agencies in addressing gender inequities and then focusses on the case of the All-China Women's Federation, the official body representing women in China. In the second section the contribution of the Conference to the process of change within the All-China Women's Federation is explored. This is followed by a discussion of the catalytic effect of the Conference on the development of non-governmental women's organisations. Policy and research into gender issues has also been galvanised as a result of the preparations for the meeting and this is taken up in the fourth part. Finally the article reflects upon the prospects for change in the institutional make-up of gender policy, research and activism.

A Proposal Issued Jointly by Nine Units, including the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and the All-China Women's Federation, on Launching Activities to Promote Civility and Courtesy (February 25, 1981)

A Proposal Issued Jointly by Nine Units, including the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and the All-China Women's Federation, on Launching Activities to Promote Civility and Courtesy (February 25, 1981)

The struggle for survival: Prospects for the Women's Federation in Post-Mao China

The process of economic reform introduced under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping in 1978 has not only restructured society but also reconstituted gender relations. For women the consequences have been ambiguous. On the one hand, the introduction of market forces has opened up new opportunities in the economic, social and cultural spheres, but on the other hand it has reinforced old patterns of gender subordination and created new forms of oppression. It is within this context of rapid socioeconomic transformation that the All-China Women's Federation faces a severe challenge. This article explores the attempts of the All-China Women's Federation to refashion itself in the face of a rapidly changing society. Given that the UN Fourth World Conference on Women took place in 1995 in Beijing, it is an apt moment to reflect both upon the future prospects of this organization and the respective roles of state and civil society organizations in addressing gender issues. With the rise of new women's organizations over the last decade and particularly in the run-up to the World Conference, the All-China Women's Federation is desperately trying to find a new identity. In doing so it has to address the acute dilemma of how best to reconcile the often competing and conflictual interests of its members and the Chinese Communist Party.

Managerial Women in the People’s Republic of China

Over the last 40 years sweeping social, political, and economic changes have taken place in the People's Republic of China. Although China has the world's oldest continuous civilization, until 1949 it was still a feudal society, isolated from the outside world and characterized by poverty, illiteracy, and premature mortality. The Communist government, in an attempt to eradicate these conditions through modernization, instituted a variety of policies during the 1950s and 1960s aimed at land reform (collectivization) and the abolition of private ownership and of class and gender inequities. To further the latter aim, the All-China Women's Federation an umbrella organization operating at the national, provincial, and local levels was founded in 1949. It was given the mandate of overseeing those policies targeted specifically at improving the condition of women. These were intended to break down Confucian traditions of

Drive Against Illegal Marriages

The State Family Planning Commission has issued a document calling for nationwide efforts to ban illegal marriages, especially in the countryside. Government at all levels should take resolute measures to educate people about the Marriage Law and stop violations, according to the recent document issued jointly with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the All-China Women's Federation.