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

Abstract

The raging debate about China's mega Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) falls into two extreme camps, those that forecast earthshattering effects and those, focused on the MSRI's numerous contemporary challenges, that see China's scheme as stagnating or failing. This study plunges into the debate by conducting a macro-and micro-level analysis of the MSRI. The macro-level analysis indicates that the MSRI is not having transformative economic effects. Neither does it show that the MSRI is significantly stalling or collapsing. The microlevel analysis, which focuses on Africa and the Middle East, demonstrates that the MSRI is being embraced and realized in different degrees and highlights reasons for this variation. The article further summarizes and distills various insights flowing from the other pieces in this special issue.

Women's Participation in Rural China's Self‐Governance: Institutional, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Factors in a Jiangsu County

“…Such assignments reinforce and institutionalize the gendered social roles of women, reproducing women's lower and more limited status within the local social and political structure. With women cadres often assuming the family planning portfolio, they are often disdained by other female villagers as being there only to ensure that no woman shall become pregnant without first obtaining the pregnancy permission from the government (Howell 2006).…”

“…Similar to Howell (2006), Guo, Zheng, and Yang (2009) find that while women in general are badly represented in local governance, those women that are included in the village governance structure are also given marginal roles. But nonetheless, while registering the intergender disparities in actual participation, they found an equal level of political identity, consciousness, and motivation between the two genders in rural China.…”

“…Studies using large‐N survey data often find a clear gap in political participation between women and men (Jennings 1998) as well as in the perception of politics (such as political knowledge and internal efficacy) between rural women and men (Tong 2003). More contextualized research presented a low level of participation of women in village politics and underrepresentation of women in corresponding governance structures (Howell 2006). A mix of various factors, including traditional patriarchal stereotyping of women, gendered division of labor and responsibilities, economic structures, institutional norms and procedures, inadequate state interventions, lower levels of women's education, political culture, and male‐centered social practices have all been put forward to explain this phenomenon (Guo, Zheng, and Yang 2009).…”

“…Howell (2006), for example, points out that in general, women's participation in politics faces challenges including gender socialization, structural factors, gender ideology, and political and institutional barriers 2 . In the Chinese countryside, sexist attitudes coincide with the perception of women as less competent ( disuzhi , or “low quality”) and the belief that women should confine their activities within domestic instead of public arenas.…”

“Post-Feminist” Era of Social Investment and Territorial Welfare? Exploring the Issue Salience and Policy Framing of Child Care in U.K. Elections 1983-2011

“…When attention has focused on child care policy it has largely examined party divisions on child care (Leitner, 2010), internal party debates on the funding of child care programmes (Brennan, 1998), addressing opposition to parties' child care policy (Eisenstein, 1981), the interplay between structural and ideational factors in establishing party platforms (Sorensen, 2011), and sex discrimination and setting party election programmes (Howell, 2006). Little attention has been given to the longitudinal study of electoral discourse and the prioritization and framing of policy proposals on child care.…”