Women and political participation in China

This paper examines the role of women in post-1949 Chinese politics, and considers the effect of various forces - government policy, modernization, foreign influence and culture - on women's political participation over time. It provides statistical data on women in leadership positions in the party and state bureaucracies, and contrasts the Cultural Revolution's overtly ''political'' strategy of mandated official quotas for leadership roles with the reform period's strategy which emphasizes the development of a long-term legal framework for the protection of women's rights, and which stresses the importance of competitive elections for holding public office. The changing role of the Women's Federation is also addressed. Beginning in 1990, when China first bid to host the 1995 UN Women's Conference - which has as its main slogan the equal fifty percent representation of men and women in power structures - there has been an attempt to reverse the numerical decline of women in political roles by reinstituting a quota system, albeit a more modest one than its predecessor.