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Women's Participation in Village Autonomy in China: Evidence from Zhejiang Province

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2009

Xiajuan Guo ,
Yongnian Zheng  and
Lijun Yang
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Abstract

Drawing on the data collected from three surveys in China's Zhejiang province during the period from 1999 to 2006, this article attempts to examine women's political participation in village autonomy and village elections in China. The data show that while men and women have obtained a very similar level of self-awareness and motivation in terms of political participation, China's patriarchal system, embedded in various forms of mindset and political practice, continues to constrain rural women's political involvement in a substantial way. The gender gap remains and the proportion of rural women in local power structures is declining. The article explains both the similarities and differences between men and women in rural political participation, and identifies some major causes for the decline of women's share in grassroots leading positions. It shows that there is no causal linkage between economic development and the improvement of women's political participation, and that the lack of political and other systematic supports leads to the low proportion of women in local power structures.

Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 197 , March 2009 , pp. 145 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2009

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References

1 Since the late 1980s, China's rural village governance structure has been transformed from the traditional system in which the village was the bottom level within the three layers of people's commune administrative structure (people's commune, brigade and production team) to the current system of village autonomy. The power structure of village self-governance consists of the assembly, the representative congress, and committee and villager group (based on geographical village). The village assembly is the highest authority; the village representative congress is the organ for villagers to exercise powers of decision-making. The village committee is the executive organ carrying out the decisions made by the assembly and representative congress. According to The Organic Law of Villager Committee Elections, every three years there should be an election for the village committee as the autonomous organization at the grassroots level (Article 2).

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8 Personal interviews show that villagers understand “to speak for the villagers” as an extremely important approach for expressing their opinions to the Party and government. For villagers, this means that village officials should speak for villagers' interests.

9 Interviews in Lisha village, Shuige township in 2000.

10 Interviews in Baiyan village, Shuige township in 2000.

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12 “Individual enterprises” refers to firms which hire fewer than eight workers, and “private enterprises” to those which hire more than eight workers.

13 Information from Wenzhou Women's Federation, December 2007.

14 Information from Wenzhou Individual Enterprises Association, December 2007.

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17 Ibid.

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20 Interviews in Shuige township, Lishui, Chengdong township, Shaoxing, and Xianjiang and Jingxiang townships, Wenzhou, November and December 2002.

21 Ibid.

22 Both male and female interviewees in the surveyed areas (August 2002) believed that they would have to depend on themselves for their future livelihoods as they had lost the protection of the previous production team.

23 Interviews in Shuige township, Lishui, Chengdong township, Shaoxing, and Xianjiang and Jingxiang townships, Wenzhou, November and December 2002. Similar answers were also given in interviews in Zhuantang township, Hangzhou. October 2006.

24 Source from the interviews in villages in Shuige township, Lishui in 2002.

25 See Table 7 (2006).

26 Individual interview with a female teacher in Lisha village, November 1999.

27 Article 8 of The Organic Law states that “the members of a village committee shall include an appropriate number of women.” The amended Organic Law was enacted in 1998, ten years after the first trial implementation in 1988. See http://www.86148.com/englishlaw/shownews.asp?id=129, accessed on 25 June 2007.

28 As there is no exact quota stipulated in The Organic Law, an unwritten principle has been exercised in practice, that is, one woman is required on each village committee, or women must make up 10% of each rural grassroots leadership. A few provinces, such as Hunan and Zhejiang, stipulated “at least one woman” in 2005.

29 The data is from the survey of the seventh election in Zhejiang conducted by the Provincial Women's Federation. There were 991 valid respondents from the total of 1,000 samples.

30 “The survey report on the village committee elections,” Jiaojiang Bureau of Civil Affairs, May 1994.

31 Source offered by the administrative office of Wuyun township, Jinyun county, November 1999.

32 “The report on the elections of the Taoyuan village committee,” Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Zhejiang University, 2000.

33 “The report on the election of the Xitang village committee,” Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Zhejiang University, 2000.

34 Source offered by the administrative office in Chengdong township, Shaoxing, 2000.

35 Source collected from the interview with the Bureau of Organization in Yuyao city, 2001.

36 See Article 10 of The Organic Law (Amendment) in 1998.

37 “The report on the elections of the village committee in Shangwang village,” Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Zhejiang University, 2000.

38 Data collected from Lishui city, Zhejiang, November 1999.

39 Data collected from Sunrui township, Shaoxing, November 2004.

40 Data collected from Gulin township, October 2003.

41 This trial project was launched by Zhejiang Civil Affairs Department. It was initiated in Yuyao and Yiwu in 2004, and spread across the entire province in 2005. The key measure used to improve women's share in the “two committees” is the provision of “at least one woman in ‘two committee’ leaderships.”

42 Data from the Zhejiang Women's Federation, 2006.

43 Data from survey of Zhuantang township, Hangzhou, November 2006.

44 Howell, “Women's political participation in China.”

45 As early as 1999, the Hunan Women's Federation suggested that the Provincial People's Congress stipulate in relevant laws and regulations that “there should be at least one woman in each village committee.” In April 2005, the Hunan Women's Federation prompted the Provincial Bureau of Civic Affairs to issue a document containing further requirements that ensure each village committee has at least one female member.

46 Howell, “Women's political participation in China.”

47 Data collected from the survey of rural and urban women's participation in local governance, conducted in Xihu district, Hangzhou, 2006. 250 questionnaires were released and 238 valid ones received, followed by interviews with 24 individuals.

48 Interviews in Baisha village, Shuige township, 2001.

49 Interviews in Lishui, 2000.

50 Data from Gulin township, Ningbo, 2002.

51 Article 10 of the Organic Law (Amendment).

52 Before 1998, all candidates for the village committee were nominated by the local Party committee, the leadership of the village committee elections and the groups of villagers, or self-nominated. The haixuan originated from Lishu county, Jilin province in 1998 and was adopted by 85% of all villages in that province that year.

53 Chengyong, Ge, The Ancient Society (Xi'an: Shaanxi renmin chubanshe, 2002), p. 254Google Scholar.