Concepts of Women's Rights in Modern China

This essay discusses how the three concepts of 'women's rights', 'people's/civil rights' and human rights' appeared in modern China, and discusses the evolution of the concept of 'women's rights' and its gendered implications. In the decade leading up to the 1911 revolution, four representative images of women emerged in the discourse of women's rights: first, serving as 'mothers to the nation'; second, 'equals in duty'; third, 'seekers of new roles' and fourth, 'adversaries to female citizenship'. It also argues that all discussions regarding 'women's rights' emerge from and within the contradictions between women's 'natural rights' and the notion that women's primary duty is to national construction.