Justina's Writing Corner

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“Women hold up half the sky” is a famous quote from Mao Zedong. Despite his failures, he did try to liberate China through the advancement of women, compared to their treatment throughout traditional history. Not only did he focus on freeing the peasants, but he  also dedicated his efforts towards women. He felt that liberating women was just as important as liberating the peasants. 

During Mao’s rule, he promised women education, love in marriage, value in family life, an identity in society, and emancipation. Although these promises were years ahead of its time, Mao actually delivered on these promises as there were as many women as there were men in the Chinese Communist Party. Mao implemented a new marriage law during his rule in May 1950. It provided a civil registry for legal marriages, raised the marriageable age to 20 for males and 18 for females, and banned marriage by proxy; both parties had to consent to a marriage.

In the initial revolution of Chairman Mao, he made sure to have an equal number of women representatives. Although many facets of traditional Chinese history were brought to an end, the eradication of harmful traditional practices such as marriage and foot binding should not be overlooked. 

During the cultural revolution, women were also involved. In the 1960’s, women were very active on political grounds. During Mao’s rule, for better or for worse, 95 percent of women participated in the military. Women also contributed to the economy, occupied educational roles, and held political power. Women benefited a lot through their elevation to higher positions. 

After the cultural revolution, we arrive at the Deng Xiaoping era. Deng Xiaoping’s legacy would be fostering the education of Chinese people by opening its borders for students to study abroad. With the increased educational opportunities, women became more powerful in society as they became economically stable and independent. The massive improvements to the standard of life for Chinese people ushered in an equality that China had never seen before. Even Soong Mei-ling, the former First Lady of the Republic of China, went abroad to America at the age of 10 to 19 years old. 

Having ridden the high of its past development, modern Chinese communism all but forgot about the Chinese women population. After President Xi took reign, one of his notable pursuits was his idea of re-instilling masculinity among Chinese males. With modernization and globalization, Chinese males started to be influenced by other cultures and have strayed from their traditional roles. Xi blamed all problems of young Chinese men on women. The apparent feminization of males has become more common. Xi even banned the showcase of men putting on feminine makeup and wearing flowers and dresses. He decided to not allow any K-pop as an attempt to limit outside influences on China because he believes it affects men’s thinking, on how men are also putting on makeup and dancing in public, something only women traditionally did in the past. He also banned social media accounts of male make-up artists and cosplayers. 

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for policies aimed towards women. While Xi may have had good intentions in retaining masculinity in China’s males, his approach to women issues were radically different. 

There are more men than women in the country due to their family planning policies and the situation for males in China is dire. There are simply not enough women for every man to get married. As women continue to surpass males  in educational levels and increase their standard  of life, women would rather develop their careers than start a family. Women are getting married later because they want to focus on their careers or own pursuits, don’t want to marry ‘down’ in social status to men who are often making less money than they are, and the more educated a women is, the less likely they are to marry to follow tradition and be relegated to a housewife. The government’s reaction to this social phenomena was to initiate their own social campaign by coining the phrase ‘Left-behind women’ or ‘Sheng Nu’, which describes a woman who still has not married in their late 20s. This social campaign has stirred a lot of controversy within China, but one thing is clear- the government is trying to pressure women back into their traditional roles by shaming them for all the reasons listed above in order to appease male interests. 

This continued pressure on women could lead to even worse results. When we look at the fact that more females opt to study abroad than males, a scenario where more and more women decide to reside in other countries or take their talents overseas becomes a real possibility that cannot be ignored. If China is to maintain its progress, the needs of women also need to have a place in discussions. 

Examine the status of women from President Mao to Deng Xiaoping and lastly to Xi. The current leadership has not demonstrated or shown any interest in advancing or addressing women issues. After the notorious Tangshan incident, where a group of men beat up four women in public for brushing off their advances, Xi tried to portray it as a one-time incident, and  even blamed the female victims who were half beaten to death. On Weibo, China’s most popular social media, the government’s official account blamed the women for dressing inappropriately and fined the abuser before the issue went viral. Outraged netizens actually prompted an official response from the government, but the government half-heartedly responded by sending squads of SWAT officers armed with firearms to patrol the restaurant district where the event took place to ensure citizens that the area was safe. The government essentially just put on a big show to make it look like they did something, but it was ultimately meaningless. Despite this incident catching the attention of the entire nation, so many similar cases go completely unnoticed.

In a country where there are fewer women than men, despite being more educated than their male counterparts, it is painfully clear that women hold no real power. There is a clear ceiling for women’s growth. While the Chinese government is worrying over why men look more and more like women, the grievances and issues of half of the demographic receive no attention. In an economically developed country, there are still so many cases of abduction, sexual harassment, the government has adamantly shown its biased support for men. 

The solution in addressing the population imbalance, women’s  rights, and the long list of other issues connected to women needs to lie in directly addressing the needs of women. If women issues continue to be left unanswered, these issues will continue to fester like an untreated sore. Previous leaders saw success in continuing to develop women. Hopefully, the current Chinese leadership looks to the long history they are so proud of and addresses by continuing the trend of supporting women so they can truly hold up half the sky.