Grassroots Elections in China by Kevin J. O'Brien & Suisheng Zhao

Author:Kevin J. O'Brien & Suisheng Zhao [O'Brien, Kevin J. & Zhao, Suisheng]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Political Process, Campaigns & Elections, Political Parties
ISBN: 9780415571579
Google: fZAqQwAACAAJ
Goodreads: 7868476
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Resisting women’s subjugation in rural politics

Though the introduction of competitive village elections has led to a decline in female representation in village committees, this trend is also meeting with some resistance, both from within the ACWF and the relevant department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and from rural women. Already in the mid-1980s academic researchers and cadres within the ACWF began to draw attention to the declining numerical representation of women in Party/state structures at all levels and in both urban and rural areas.28 Some Women’s Federations had already begun in the late 1980s to introduce measures such as minimum quotas for women, stimulating in turn a debate about the pros and cons of quotas for women. In Heping District of Shenyang city the head of the Women’s Federation even challenged the notion of quotas as ceilings and managed to raise the representation of women in the local People’s Congress from the quota of 25% to 31.7%.29

As competitive village elections swept across China’s villages in the 1990s, some cadres in national and local level Women’s Federations began to meet and plan ways of countering the downward spiral of female representation. The Women’s Federation of Qianxi County, Hebei province was one of the first to set up training sessions in 1999 for potential female village committee chairs and members.30 Other provincial and city women’s federations also began to introduce specialised training for rural women to enter political leadership positions in villages. These training sessions provided opportunities for women from a diversity of villages to share experiences, learn about the political system, and gain confidence.

Apart from training, some progressive Women’s Federations such as in Shandong province and Hunan province have introduced local measures to promote women’s participation. For example, in Hunan province a joint document was issued by Hunan provincial Women’s Federation and the Rural Grassroots Section of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which interpreted Article 9 of the national Village Committee Organic Law to mean that there should be at least one woman on a village committee. Some counties in Hunan have also issued their own directives echoing the substance of the provincial document. Local level officials involved in the village election committee are thus obliged, in theory at least, to ensure that every village has female representation. A similar initiative was taken in Shandong province, where the local Women’s Federation and Civil Affairs Bureau jointly issued a document, requiring there to be at least one woman on the village committee. As a result the numbers of women on the committee increased after the next elections. As mentioned earlier, in some provinces such as Hunan, local officials have seized this opportunity to introduce competitive direct elections for the heads of women’s committees and to then promote this woman as the candidate for a village committee position.

In a workshop organised by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in August 2004 in Beijing, academics, NPC delegates, female village committee heads and cadres from national and provincial Women’s Federations came together to discuss ways of increasing female representation on village committees.

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