Women’s rights low priority
CHINA Speculation is rife about who will be the new leaders in the Communist Party this week. One thing is certain though – they will be men.
Despite the party’s advocacy of gender equality, Chinese women are yet to occupy anything like a fair share of the national party congress or make it to the core leadership.
In his 30,000-word report delivered to rows of dark-suited men on Thursday, China’s President Xi spoke on many issues but made little or no mention of women’s rights.
‘‘You don’t see this mentioned in Xi’s report,’’ Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said. ‘‘It’s quite disturbing.’’
China remains a highly patriarchal society where gender equality in politics has yet to become a reality nearly 50 years after Mao Zedong, the founding communist revolutionary, said women held up half the sky. Last year China ranked 99th out of 144 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum. While China has largely narrowed the gender gap in education and health, few women make it to elite politics.
Chinese culture still sneers at ambitious women trying to smash the glass ceiling while praising those who virtuously fulfil family duties.
For many citizens, China is a society in which men are the decision makers.
Families still prefer sons over REUTERS daughters, although the one-child policy that was formally phased out in 2015 has been credited with elevating girls’ status. Parents invested in their only chid, regardless of the gender. Women, however, still face many obstacles if they want to attain power.
The mandatory retirement age for women is 55, compared with 60 for men, making it hard for women to advance their political careers. ‘‘The glass ceiling still exists for Chinese women,’’ Xi Yinghong, a columnist in Chinese media, wrote.
‘‘It’s there not because of lack of capabilities or education but because of discrimination.’’
Women take up less than a quarter of the seats in congress and hold 12 per cent of ministerial positions.
Wang Hongwei, a professor at South China Normal University, said women were under pressure to get married and raise a family, leaving them little time for politics.
Cheng Li, a senior fellow in the foreign policy programme at the US think tank the Brookings Institution, said that of the current 25-member politburo, only two were women, one of whom is to retire this autumn.
Li urged the president to prioritise vigorous institutional reforms to elevate female leaders. Judging by Xi’s report, that goal seems far off. The Times