Equality, Did You Say? Chinese Feminism After 30 Years of Reforms

After 30 years of economic reforms, what is the comparative situation of men and women in the People’s Republic of China? How can we analyse the policies for promoting gender equality? Have inequalities that existed in Mao’s China disappeared now? Or have factors such as the liberalisation of the labour market and the single child policy merely shifted the boundaries of such inequalities and even created others? This article looks at the ways in which the equality issue is dealt with, both by the government and by the All China Women’s Federation and feminist organisations. It seeks to show which inequalities are prioritised and what has been the state’s place in contemporary Chinese feminism.