Global Gender Gap Report 2012: Iceland #1, China #69, India #105

rockdog

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Global Gender Gap | World Economic Forum - Global Gender Gap

The Global Gender Gap Report 2012 benchmarks national gender gaps of 135 countries on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria. The Global Gender Gap Index was developed in 2006, partially to address the need for a consistent and comprehensive measure of gender equality that can track a country's progress over time. The index points to potential role models by revealing those countries that – within their region or income group – are leaders in dividing resources more equitably between women and men than other countries, regardless of the overall level of resources available.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2012 emphasizes persisting gender gap divides across and within regions. Based on the seven years of data available for the 111 countries that have been part of the report since its inception, it finds that the majority of countries covered have made slow progress on closing gender gaps.

This year's findings show that Iceland tops the overall rankings in The Global Gender Gap Index for the fourth consecutive year. Finland ranks in second position, overtaking Norway (third). Sweden remains in fourth position. Northern European countries dominate the top 10 with Ireland in the fifth position, Denmark (seventh) and Switzerland (10th). New Zealand (sixth), Philippines (eighth) and Nicaragua (ninth) complete the top 10.

The index continues to track the strong correlation between a country's gender gap and its national competitiveness. Because women account for one-half of a country's potential talent base, a nation's competitiveness in the long term depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilizes its women.

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Iceland #1, Finland #2, China #69, India #105,

Last 5: Yemen, Pakistan, Chad, Syria, Saudi Arabia

I think the Islamic nations are still with worst record on gender gap...
 

rockdog

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Philippines is no 8 and prc no 69......:facepalm:
First it's a Catholic nation,

Second, as you know in East Asia (especially in Hong Kong and Macau), Mid East, there are lots of Philippines females working in service sectors like home servant, cashier, retail shop worker. I have seen lots of hard working ladies in Dubai and Kuwait.

I even think the Female is more employed than male in Philippines.
 

Ray

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There is a gender gap in China because of Communism.

They do not recognise the gender as any criterion.

The Communist look at the person's productivity quotient and the gender is of no concern.

That is why they are all Tongzhis (Comrades and no gender)

The Communists wiped out the immense gender gap which was there before in history.

In this way, Communism has done great service to China.
 

Phenom

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There is no doubt that the condition of women need to improve in Asia, including India and China.

But I would take these reports with a grain of salt, for example one of the criteria mentioned is economic, since a large percentage of women in Asia don't go to work, its likely that there economic situation would rank badly compared to Europe where most women do work. But this doesn't mean women are discriminated in Asia, its just a cultural difference. And I'm not sure whether these reports take such differences into account.
 

huaxia rox

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There is a gender gap in China because of Communism.

They do not recognise the gender as any criterion.

The Communist look at the person's productivity quotient and the gender is of no concern.

That is why they are all Tongzhis (Comrades and no gender)

The Communists wiped out the immense gender gap which was there before in history.

In this way, Communism has done great service to China.
so why there is a gender gap in india which is worse than prc???because of caste system???or what???
 

Ray

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so why there is a gender gap in india which is worse than prc???because of caste system???or what???
Because there is no Communism.

Check any Communist nation, USSR, China, Cuba, Eastern Europe, there will be hardly any gender gap.

Communism looks at people irrespective of gender for their productivity to the State.

Caste has nothing to do with gender gap. It is like the 'class' system of Europe and with modernity both class and caste is on the way out.
 

rockdog

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There is a gender gap in China because of Communism.

They do not recognise the gender as any criterion.

The Communist look at the person's productivity quotient and the gender is of no concern.

That is why they are all Tongzhis (Comrades and no gender)

The Communists wiped out the immense gender gap which was there before in history.

In this way, Communism has done great service to China.
I don't think it's quite connected to Communism, since almost nobody believe in it now in China, even the Party itself...
It's now somehow a mix of socialism and jungle capitalism in China

I have been Nordic nations for 5 yrs, and as you can see the Nordic nation gained highest ranking in report and famous of good socialism system. I think that's way China is working on.

For Communism and communist? Let the stupid Maoist in China or India to talk about it, and of course, someone in this forum.
 

huaxia rox

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so you mean prc ranked at no 69 is very good.....and prc doesnt have gendar gap???is that what you are trying to say??

and its from a modern human society standard or what standard???
 

Ray

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CHINESE SOCIETY AND COMMUNISM

In China the authority of the state and maintenance of social stability have precedence over the well being of individuals and individual rights. Chinese are taught in the education system and often told by their parents to devote their energies and talents for the good of China not for their personal glory or money.

Communist society has not been a classless society. Under Mao, it was essentially divided into three tiers: 1) the privileged elite that ran the country; 2) the urban, educated professional class; and 3) the blue-collar industrial workers and farmers. The most basic social divisions were between the peasants, mostly subsistence farmers bound to the land, and urban people who worked in factories and in the bureaucracy

The government has the ability to mobilize large numbers of people quickly. The military is called in to help offer relief after major earthquakes or floods. Neighborhood watch teams make sure parents don't have too many children and keep an eye out for terrorists.

There is an understanding in China that you can do most anything, say anything and wear anything as long as you stay out of politics and don't try to organize people. Chinese that have overstepped the bounds have ended up in jail or had to sit through self-criticism meetings and admit faults they really didn't have.

Maoist rule fostered a widespread culture of dependency. People had few worries and made few decisions and rarely had to fend for themselves because the government took care of everything for them: housing, education, employment, material goods and even mates. Marriages were often arranged by work committees. People didn't have to look for jobs themselves. Today, many people feel shocked and betrayed by the way things they were entitled to under Mao system have been taken away. See Welfare, Government

Everything was guaranteed in the Maoist system. Everyone had a job and access to social services, child care, adult education and even lunch. One woman told National Geographic, "We had our jobs, a home, and food. What bothered us was being shut in and not being able to speak our minds freely."

The government regulated everything from the content of newspapers to the production of toothpaste and made almost all economic decisions. Some people went through their whole lives without having to make a major decision about the lives or their future. "In the old days everything was decided for us," one man told the Washington Post. "It was easy because we did not have to choose. Now we find we have make decisions on our own; and freedom of opinion brings along a lot more responsibility."

"You learn at an early age," one man told National Geographic, "that in many instances absolutely nobody believes what the government is saying. At a political meeting a party member will talk. He'll know what he's saying is nonsense. And he'll know that you know."


Equal in Poverty and Social Obligations in China

In the old days Chinese were indoctrinated to believe they were better off than people elsewhere in the world and they believed this because there was little evidence to contradict it because Chinese had little exposure to the outside world through the media.

Nobel Prize winning poet Joseph Brodsky described life in the Communist era as "equal in poverty". There the was no private property, inherited wealth, or great income disparities.

One intellectual told National Geographic, "There was a uniformity to life. Everyone was more or less equal. Everyone lived more or less OK, or equally badly, but no one was rich. Everyone dreamed about freedom, and this united them. People could recognize each other, who they were, with just a couple of words. This created a certain ambiance, a quality of human relations. It wasn't wonderful, but it was familiar."

Even today many would rather see everyone poor than see a few lucky rich ones who make everyone else jealous.* Alessandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times, "There was no shame in poverty when only criminals and party officials were rich. Obscurity was noble when professional achievement was bound up with political compromise.

Life was also shaped by social obligations. Many people have bad memories of working for voluntary work patrols in which they were forced to participate. Students and soldiers helped in harvest. In some places, one day every year people helped sweep up the city for no money.


Neighborhood Committees in China

On a local level the Communist Party bureaucracy has been made up of millions of neighborhood committees which have to answer to the next level up, the street or village committees. In the cities, several street committees make up a district committee which in turn are under the jurisdiction of the Municipal People's government or the Regional People's government. All of these committees follow guidelines laid out by the national government. To keep their members in line, the local committees often use social pressure in the form of face-losing criticism.

Neighborhood committees in urban areas have made sure the poor are fed, the elderly are looked after, petty crimes are brought to justice, one-child polices are adhered to, and family disputes—mostly between wives and mothers-in-laws—are settled. For the most part the streets in cities are safe. Some residents feel so safe they bring their beds outdoors in the summer.

A typical neighborhood committee controls three blocks and contains about 1,000 households. The leader and his or 30 or so "group leaders" are in charge of hanging party propaganda posters, leading weekly meetings of the local party cell, where new polices and rules are announced. Retired women often hold the job. They are sometimes called "bound feet detectives" because of their shuffling feet and busybody attitude. [Source: Wall Street Journal]

Neighborhoods are kept in line with "building bosses" and their helpers, "door watchers," who keep an eye on what is going on in almost every house. Informers are everywhere. Communist-era proverb: "One Chinese watches a thousand; a thousand Chinese watch one."


Work Units in China

Most Chinese also have had to answer to "community units" or "work units" (dawei) in their place of work, whether it be a factory, hospital, commune or public works project. In the old days, these organizations exerted control on almost every aspect of an individual's life: they gave out ration cards, arranged day care, supplied train tickets, chose which doctors and hospitals people wented to, decided who gets housing, set salaries and recruited party members. The lives of some people are still controlled by work units but not as many as before.

Work units have been the main channels in Communist China for distributing social benefits and exerting social control. Even today they keep files on their members and often have to be consulted about personal matters such as travel or children, and are able to pressure people by reducing wages and bonuses, by denying promotions and transfers, or by taking away the job completely.

In the old days, work units and neighborhood committees controlled marriages, divorces, pregnancies and birth control. To get married, a couple needed permission from a local board and a letter from an employer stating that a person was single. In some cases, employers would use their authority to solicit a bribe or demand some concession before the form was submitted. In most cases the employers provided the paper work but the couples felt inconvenienced and embarrassed asking for permission.

In the Mao era, people lived in assigned housing in state dormitories, communes and factory quarters and bought food and clothing with rationed coupons.


Decline of Neighborhood Committees and Work Units

hinese society demands much less conformity in political views and personal lifestyles than it used to, especially in the Mao era. One of thee biggest changes had been the gradual erosion of the population registration system, which tied people to their places of birth, preventing internal migration and even tourism.

Neighborhood committees and work units no longer exert the control on people's lives they once did. Their powers began to diminish in the 1980s in rural areas with the rapid collapse of communes and the giving of land and decision-making power to farmers. Work units began collapsing in the cities in the 1990s as state-owned industries began going bankrupt or were shut down or restructured.

There are still an estimated 500,000 neighborhood committee cadres. The leaders are paid around $250 a month. These days their duties include helping the unemployed find jobs, organizing anti-crime efforts, keeping track of childbearing women, and helping married couples stay together. From time to time, the leaders are called on to do things like count Falun Gong members.

There is now some discussion about making the neighborhood committees small welfare agencies and hiring college graduates instead of retired women.

See State White-Collar Workers in the Mid-2000s, Labor, Economics


Spiritual Civilization in China

In the late 1990s, the government under Jiang Zemin launched a "Spiritual Civilization" campaign in which people were encouraged to be more cultured and shed their bad habits. Described by Steven Mufson in the Washington Post as "one part Leninist ideology, one part Miss Manners," it covered everything from spiting in public to reuniting the motherland and advised people to pay their taxes, avoid too much raw or cold foods, take frequent showers, cut one's fingernails and perform good deeds.

As part the campaign the airwaves were filled with moralizing lectures; billboards listed the "Nine Commandments" beginning with "Love Your Country"; husbands were told to help around the house; and children were told cook "soft and mushy" meals for their elders. Some places even banned swearing and impolite behavior and created "civilized citizen" pledges.

Shanghai launched a "Seven Nos" campaign (no spitting, no jaywalking, no cursing, no destruction of greenery, no vandalism, no littering and no smoking). An effort was also made to clean up the city's public toilets. Businessmen encouraged their employees not to use phrases such as "Don't have it," "Can't you see I'm busy," and "Hurry up and pay."

In Dalian, citizens were promised cash rewards for reporting rude taxi drivers; travelers were fined for spitting; scavengers were banned from bagging doves and pigeons in the central squares; and soccer fans were told to tone down their insults of players on opposing teams.

As part of the "One Million Party Members Care" campaign a hotline was set up in Beijing for complaints of sloppy house repairs, sanitation problems, shoddy goods and problems with urban life.


Model Towns and Model Citizens in China

In the "spiritual civilization" campaign the government set up of model towns filled with placards that read: "Follow Regulations," "Love Your Country, Love Your City," and "Be a Model Citizen." The citizens were expected to attend twice-weekly ideology classes in which people were informed about "clean" and "dirty" habits. Those who were caught gambling, arguing with neighbors or failing to put their garbage in the proper plastic bag were required to wear yellow vests that advertised their shame. Households that followed all the rules were rewarded with tax exemptions and plaques on their houses that stated they were a "New Wind Family."

The "spiritual civilization" campaign also honored "everyday heros" and "model citizens" such as Xu Hu, a Shanghai plumber who fixed leaky toilets for free; Li Guon, a well-driller who helped poor villages in the Gobi Desert find water; and Li Suli, a bus conductor who arrived early to work to wash her bus and charmed passengers with her smiles and friendly advice. Other model citizens included a cancer patient who got out of bed the day after an operation an swept all the floors in the hospital, and a bank manager who helped monks at a temple load 10 tons of coins on a truck and take it a bank where the monks opening a high-interest account.

Jiang also stressed guoqing ("Chinese-ness) and launched a "Three Stresses" campaign: highlighting a need for theoretical study, political awareness and good conduct. The program was criticized as a waist of time and energy.


Harmonious Society and the Eight Virtues and Eight Shames

Hu made "building a harmonious society"—a reference to spreading the wealth from the haves to have nots and correcting the injustices of Chinese society and combating widespread corruption—a top priority. How serious and successful he is has not yet been determined. In the hinterlands the Communist Party has done little to respond to injustices (See Protests and Demonstrations, Government).

Speeches by party leaders emphasize unity and harmony but in society there is more individuality and personal freedom because people have more money and more options than they used to.

Hu has promoted the idea that the solutions to China's problems lie in a return to Marxist and Mao ideology and Confucian values, and sees Chinese culture as providing it own moral direction, with perhaps a storng dose of nationalism thrown in for good measure. A line from the song that has accompanied the harmonious society campaign goes: "It's most glorious to love the motherland, a great sin to harm her."

Many are not exactly sure what all this means but some think it is a green light to some forms of dissent that allow citizens to let off steam. The Hu government has held public hearings on some controversial matters, allowed more freedom of the press and expression on the Internet and refused to wield a heavy hand when protests break out in part to let people vent their frustrations while the government maintains a firm grip on power.

In step with his plan to make China a more harmonious place and combat greed and corruption. Hu issued "Eight Virtues and Eight Shames": 1) Love the motherland, do not harm it; 2) Serve don't deserve people; 3) Uphold science, don't be ignorant and unenlightened; 4) Work hard, don't be lazy; 5) Be united and help each other, don't benefit at the expense of others; 6) Be honest, not profit-mongering; 7) Be disciplined and law-abiding, not chaotic and lawless; 8) Know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries." The message has been placed on billboards, featured on the front pages of newspapers and repeated over and over on television and radio.


Disparity of Income in China

Developing world counties are generally two-tiered societies with a large, poor underclass and a small upper class, often connected with the government. The middle class is often small.

In the Mao era there was little income disparity and few rich people. Forced egalitarianism prevailed. The Asian countries in with the lowest income disparity between rich and poor (determined by how many times more income the richest 20 percent of the population has than the poorest 20 percent) in the 1990s were: 1) Sri Lanka (4.4); 2) Indonesia (4.9); 3) South Korea (5.7); 4) China (6.5), Philippines (7.4)...compared to 9.0 in the U.S., 15.5 in Thailand and 32 in Brazil.

As China's economy has rapidly grown, it has gone from having one of the lowest income disparities of incomes to one of the highest in a relatively short amount of time. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the mid 2000s the top 10 percent of the Chinese population controlled 45 percent of the country's wealth while the poorest 10 percent had 1.4 percent and had incomes less than 1/12th of those of the richest 10 percent. By some accounts the disparity now is greater than it was before the Communists took power in 1949.

Income disparity is also geographical phenomena, with people in the richest parts of the country earning 10 times more than those in the poorest parts. Much of the China's wealth is concentrated in the coastal cities in eastern and southern China. The interior for the most part remains poor.

Frustration over the widening income gap has resulted in bitterness among have nots and evoked nostalgia for the old days. A 48-year-old truck driver told the Los Angeles Times, "Many people our age are psychologically unbalanced. What's so great about letting a few get rich while so many more are dragged into poverty? I really miss the Mao period when things were equal." Sociologists call the phenomena "reactive deprivation" and say the problem "is especially true when its personal—people see a neighbor get rich even though they used be classmates and are just the same. Chinese patience is perhaps most pronounced when it comes to money."

A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center before the 2008 Olympics found that 89 percent of the Chinese interviewed said they were concerned about the gap between rich and poor.

Beijing is attempting to tackle the income disparity problem by implementing a more progressive tax system and cutting taxes for the poor while closing loopholes and preventing cheating by the rich.

In a New Year speech in 2007, Hu said he was committed ending the gap between the rich and poor. By then there had been a shift in focus in policy with the government saying that it was just as responsible for improving the quality of life as it was for delivering economic growth. In December 2007, the Chinese government announced that it would subsidize the purchase of appliances by farmers to help narrow the income gap. In the first stage of the program farmers in Shandong, Henan and Sichuan Provinces could buy cell phones, televisions and refrigerators, with government footing 13 percent of the bill.


Beijing's Harmonious Families Award Takes a Materialist Turn

Adam Minter wrote in Bloomberg News:"On February 3 millions of Beijing families woke up to some odd news from the All-China Women's Federation— the city's oldest, and most important, women's organization. To be eligible for their new "Capital Harmonious Family" award, a family living in Beijing should own a library of at least 300 books, have an Internet connection and subscribe to at least one newspaper. It also wouldn't hurt if your family traveled frequently, ate out regularly and practiced a low-carbon lifestyle. It was an elitist turn for an organization that was established in March 1949 to support the Communist Party, the rights and equality of women, and strong families. In the Confucian tradition, harmony in the home is considered a prerequisite to achieving harmony in society. So, in the early 1950s, the ACWF established the "Five Good Families" award for model families that exhibited five virtues, such as "marital harmony" and unwavering support of the party.[Source: Adam Minter, Bloomberg News, February 9, 2012]

In 2007, the Beijing branch of the ACWF renamed the honor the Capital Harmonious Family award to comply with President Hu Jintao's comprehensive vision for building a harmonious society that promotes economic and social equality. It has been a popular, even iconic competition; the thousands of families who have won it enjoy more prestige and respect from their neighbors.

Over the decades, the criteria for winning the award have changed to reflect both the party's objectives and the tenor of the times. In 1986, when China was in the early flush of its economic reform, families that sought the award had to "be good at daring to reform ." When China was trying to enforce its "one child" population-control policies, the criteria changed to include "be good at family planning."

For more than four years, the Beijing ACWF has been working with the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences to establish more "scientific criteria" to evaluate potential families for the award. On March 4, 2008, two separate trial criteria -- one for Beijing's urban middle class, and another for its poorer rural, or suburban, class -- were posted to the Beijing ACWF's website. They generated no heat or interest from the press or the public.

That is until Feb. 3, when the Beijing News's Wei Ming reported that the 27 evaluation criteria were close to being finalized. Ninety percent of the criteria for urban families are relatively ordinary, reading in part: "Family status is equal and not affected by differences in age, gender or income; family members are satisfied with their position in the family." Hardly the stuff that incites Internet flame wars.

But in a fit of sensationalistic inspiration, Wei led the news story by referring to the "trendy" new standards in criteria Nos. 5 and 9, respectively: "Family members spend leisure time together, frequently travel, dine out, shop and engage in other family activities that promote family cohesion and deeper feelings —The household has a computer, bookcase, desk and other learning tools and study sites; family members have access to the Internet to acquire information, and are frequently online; family's library totals 300 books and above; subscribes to no fewer than one newspaper or periodical."


Reaction to the New "Yuppy" Harmonious Families Award

Adam Minter wrote in Bloomberg News: "For a population that has become acclimated to thinking of its model families as paragons of personal and civic virtue, hearing them now defined in unambiguously material terms set off tempers. Reaction on China's microblogs was swift and angry, with discussion of the criteria remaining on "hot topic" lists for many days. "They are selecting families that enjoy life among the upper and corrupt classes," wrote Little Loach, the handle of a user on Tencent Weibo, China's second-most popular microblog. "Not harmonious families." Han Xiao, another Tencent Weibo user, wrote a more affecting response: "While those who struggle at the bottom of society worry about their livelihoods, or are busy paying the medical bills of the old and the cost of raising children, people with excellent living conditions are showing off that they can surf the Internet — through so-called competitions." [Source: Adam Minter, Bloomberg News, February 9, 2012]

A poll on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblog, recorded that 81 percent of the respondents rejected the new criteria entirely. Despite tremendous economic gains over the past 30 years, few Beijing families can afford the cosmopolitan lifestyle the ACWF outlined. Party officials, however, are often perceived as affluent, living beyond the means of those not in, or connected to, government. Li Xu, a Tencent user, expressed the sentiment of many Chinese microbloggers when he wrote: "Everyone, and even every family, has a singular definition of happiness. After all, harmony, in its true state, is a natural thing. Why should it be limited by criteria? Don't encourage society to despise the poor and curry favor with the rich.

Read enough commentary on Tencent and Sina Weibo and two things become very apparent. First, most microbloggers haven't bothered to read the rest of the selection criteria for urbanites, which largely emphasize inter-family relations and patriotic values. And second, most either haven't noticed -- or don't care about -- the separate, condescending evaluation criteria the Beijing ACWF has established for poor families living in Beijing's rural suburbs.


Suburban Standards for the Harmonious Families Award

Adam Minter wrote in Bloomberg News: "While the urban standards suggest the gap between Beijing's wealthy elites and its middle class, the so-called suburban standards reflect the elite's perceived distance between Beijing's middle class and the country's expansive underclass. The first few suburban evaluation criteria, like the urban criteria, are unremarkable: Harmonious families should value family, honor the elderly and seek to increase knowledge. Halfway through the list though, things start to diverge significantly. [Source: Adam Minter, Bloomberg News, February 9, 2012]

Whereas urbanites are encouraged to have a library of 300 books, suburbanites are merely encouraged to have a study space with an undefined collection of books. While urbanites are encouraged to recycle, suburbanites are encouraged to develop good personal hygiene and avoid letting their dogs and cats run loose.

Personal virtue is important to both groups, but whereas urbanites are encouraged to love their neighbors, volunteer and help the elderly, suburbanites are reminded that harmonious families do "not engage in superstitious activities, cults or prostitution, gambling and drug abuse." Beijing's urban residents, most of whom live within a brief stroll of opportunities to partake in gambling and prostitution, are not required to meet a similar standard to be judged harmonious. Were such a standard required of them, no doubt online reaction would be strident.

But the urban middle class doesn't seem to be offended by the elites' condescension toward the rural Chinese. Data is spotty, but it is estimated that the average income in China's cities, minus the wealthy, is three times higher than income in the countryside. This gap is the most profound gap in contemporary China: Economically and culturally, China's urban middle class resembles more the elite class than their poor country cousins.

So why, then, don't Beijing's so-called suburbanites object on their own behalf? Presumably because they belong to that half of China that lacks access to the Internet and other (modest) public means of dissent. But even if they had such access, would China's upwardly mobile middle class really care to listen and sympathize? Until their voices are heard as clearly as those of middle-class netizens, the silence says as much about the distance between Beijing and the countryside as any data set.

Image Sources: Posters, Landsberger Posters Page Not Found | IISH. Photo: Cgstock cgstock.com - thumbnails of The People's Republic of China pictures

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton's Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

CHINESE SOCIETY AND COMMUNISM - China | Facts and Details

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Check this and then check if gender inequality can exist under the Communist diktat on societal behaviour!
 

Ray

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Historic Liberation of Chinese Women

In semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China, women were for a long time kept at the bottom of society. It was not until the first half of this century that the Chinese Communist Party led the Chinese people to wage a great and profound national democratic revolution on this ancient land. At the same time, a large-scale women's emancipation movement was launched, resulting in the historic liberation of Chinese women which won worldwide attention.

The impact of the several millennia of oppression and devastation imposed by the feudal patriarchal system on Chinese women was exceptionally grave. In political, economic, cultural, social and family life, women were considered inferior to men. This was profoundly manifested in the following ways:

Possessing no political rights, women were completely excluded from social and political life. Economically dependent, women were robbed of property and inheritance rights and possessed no independent source of income. Having no social status, women were forced to obey their fathers before marriage, their husbands after marriage and their sons if they became widowed. They had no personal dignity or independent status, and were deprived of the right to receive an education and take part in social activities. They enjoyed no freedom in marriage but had to obey the dictates of their parents and heed the words of matchmakers, and were not allowed to remarry if their spouse died. They were subjected to physical and mental torture, being harassed by systems of polygamy and prostitution, the overwhelming majority of them forced to bind their feet from childhood. For centuries, "women with bound feet" was a synonym for the female gender in China.

The successive invasions by the Western powers after the Opium War in 1840 aggravated the plight of Chinese women. In the full-scale war of aggression launched by Japan against China from 1937 on, most of the over 30 million Chinese who were brutally killed were women and children. Within a month after the Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, they committed over 20,000 rapes. The cruel oppression and exploitation of the Chinese people by imperialist and feudalist forces as well as bureaucratic capitalism pushed China to the brink of national subjugation and annihilation. It also plunged Chinese women into an abyss of misery never witnessed before.

For national salvation and self emancipation, Chinese women, along with the entire nation, waged a dauntless struggle that lasted for over a century. They also launched a succession of movements for women's liberation. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom enacted and promulgated a series of policies on sexual equality. The Reform Movement of 1898 advocated and ignited the wave to ban feet binding and establish schools for women. The 1911 Revolution kindled a feminist movement which focused on equal rights for men and women and participation by women in political affairs. These movements promoted the awakening of Chinese women. Nevertheless, they all failed to bring about a fundamental change in their miserable plight as victims of oppression and enslavement.

Ever since its birth, the Chinese Communist Party has made the achievement of female emancipation and equality between men and women one of its goals. Under the leadership of the Party, women were mobilized and organized to form a broad united front with working women in industry and agriculture as the main body. Women of all ethnic groups and walks of life united to stage popular women's liberation movements closely tied to the Chinese revolution. In Communist Party-led base areas in particular, the revolutionary political powers issued a series of decrees and regulations to ensure the rights of women and raise their status. This brought light and hope to women throughout the country.

For the women of China, the founding of the People's Republic of China ended the thousands of years of feudal oppression and enslavement and the history of being trampled and bullied by foreign aggressors. With an entirely new face, they have stood up and become the masters of new China like all citizens of the country. In 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was convened in Beijing. The 69 women present accounted for 10.4 percent of the delegates. They represented women throughout the country in discussions together with men delegates on matters of vital importance for the country's construction. At the conference, Soong Ching Ling was elected vice-chairperson of the Central People's Government. Li Dequan, Shi Liang and some other women were also placed in leading posts in the government. The Common Program, adopted by the conference which had the nature of a provisional constitution, solemnly declared the toppling of the feudal system which fettered women and stated that women enjoyed equal rights with men in the political, economic, cultural and educational fields and in other aspects of social life. Thus a new era in the emancipation of Chinese women was ushered in.

After the founding of the People's Republic, there was a surge of mass movements throughout the country to quickly change the backward economic and cultural outlook left over by old China and eradicate the antiquated system and outmoded customs that fettered, discriminated against and humiliated women. This effected an earth-shaking historic change in the social status and condition of women.

-- Land reform. In old China, poor farmers and farm laborers, who accounted for 70 percent of the rural population, owned only 10 percent of the land. Women had no right to own any land. In the very early days of the People's Republic, a widespread and profound land reform movement was carried out, in accordance with the principle of distributing land on the basis of the number of members in a family. Rural women obtained land, just like their male counterparts, and became masters of their piece of soil. This fundamentally altered the situation of economic inequality between men and women.

-- Universal balloting. The Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated in 1953 clearly stipulated that women enjoy the same rights to vote and stand for election as men. The subsequent elections conducted at grass-roots level nationwide in December that year were the first large-scale general ballot in Chinese history. More than 90 percent of women cast their vote, and the number of women people's deputies elected at grass-roots level accounted for 17 percent of the total. Among the deputies to the National People's Congress, elected somewhat later, women made up 12 percent, with females accounting for 11 percent of all representatives from ethnic minorities. This indicates that ever since the founding of the People's Republic, the participation of women of all ethnic groups in state administration has been not only written into the law but also an actual practice. In some Western countries, only one or two centuries after their founding, did the law stipulate that women had equal voting rights with men.

-- The move out of the home. Along with the economic rehabilitation and development, there appeared a nationwide upsurge of women stepping out of their homes to take part in social production. In 1957, around 70 percent of rural women engaged in agricultural work, and the number of urban women workers and staff reached 3.286 million, representing a 5.5-fold increase over 1949. This thoroughly transformed the situation in which women were excluded from social productive labor, providing them with an independent source of income.

-- Illiteracy eradication campaign. In old China, as many as 90 percent of women were illiterate. In order to raise the cultural level of the entire nation, New China launched a planned campaign to gradually wipe out illiteracy. The mass campaign witnessed three upsurges in 1952, 1956 and 1958. Various literacy classes, popular evening schools and workers' spare-time schools mushroomed in both rural and urban areas, and women attended these in their millions. By 1958, 16 million women had learned to read, and this represented an initial step in eradicating the ignorance and backwardness of Chinese women.

-- Publicity and implementation of the Marriage Law. The Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated in 1950, was the first statute enacted by New China. It clearly declared the abolition of the feudal marriage system characterized by arranged and forced marriage, male superiority and female inferiority, and disregard for the interests of children. Implementation of the new system was marked by freedom for both men and women in marriage, monogamy, sexual equality and protection of the legitimate rights of women and children. This signified a profound revolution in the patterns of wedded and family life that had prevailed for several thousand years in Chinese society. In the months that followed the law's promulgation, a large-scale mass campaign was staged throughout the country to publicize and implement the Marriage Law. This action resulted in the annulment of numerous feudal engagements, a rapid reduction in wife bashing and maltreatment, and freely chosen love marriages became prevalent. Through several years of hard work, the shackles imposed upon women by the millennia-old feudal marriage system was smashed and freedom of marriage was basically established.

-- Ban on prostitution. Brothels, prostitution and whoring were among the disgusting social phenomena left over by old China. Immediately after its founding, New China adopted resolute measures to outlaw prostitution. In November 1949, the Second People's Representative Conference of Beijing Municipality took the lead in adopting a decision to ban prostitution. The municipal government immediately closed all brothels and gathered prostitutes in designated places where they could be educated, have their thinking reformed, receive treatment for venereal diseases, and be provided with guidance to help them start normal lives and support themselves through their own work. Following the example of Beijing, all large, medium-sized and small cities in the country, including Shanghai and Tianjin, waged campaigns to wipe out prostitution. In a very short period of time, the sale of sex, a chronic social malady that seemed impossible to eradicate in old China and which seriously damaged the physical and mental health of women and degraded their dignity, disappeared, enabling society to take on a brand-new outlook.

By means of these large-scale mass movements, New China took only a few years to clean up the filth and mire left over from a feudal society that had lasted for thousands of years. It effected fundamental emancipation for women in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social and family life. This represented a significant transformation in the history of contemporary social development that China can be proud of. It was also an important contribution made by the Chinese revolution to the worldwide movement for women's liberation.

Govt. White Papers - china.org.cn

***************************************

It is time to open up your eyes and see reality beyond perverted national pride that makes you blind!

It is time you learn more of your own countries and not live will wool pulled over your eyes!

I may not be a votary of Communism, but I am not biased or parochial or blind to see the good they have done.

That is why I say that Mao has done more for China than any other Leader of China.
 
Last edited:

huaxia rox

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Because there is no Communism.

Check any Communist nation, USSR, China, Cuba, Eastern Europe, there will be hardly any gender gap.

Communism looks at people irrespective of gender for their productivity to the State.

Caste has nothing to do with gender gap. It is like the 'class' system of Europe and with modernity both class and caste is on the way out.
besides why this happens : Northern European countries dominate the top 10 with Ireland in the fifth position, Denmark (seventh) and Switzerland (10th). New Zealand (sixth), Philippines (eighth) and Nicaragua (ninth) complete the top 10.

any of them has communism???why they dont have the gendar gap??? coz they have caste system or what??
 

huaxia rox

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you know whats the most funny thing here is when chinese believe we r so shit to be ranked at no 69.....indians think they have all the grounds to be ranked at 100 above hooking up with their friends like Chad and Syria there............good achivement i must say........
 

Ray

The Chairman
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you know whats the most funny thing here is when chinese believe we r so shit to be ranked at no 69.....indians think they have all the grounds to be ranked at 100 above hooking up with their friends like Chad and Syria there............good achivement i must say........
Why are you meandering like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

You have proved to be a hollow can that makes a lot of noise.

Comment on my post of Communist bringing gender equality.
 

Ray

The Chairman
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Since you are being weasel like, I am reproducing my post.

Comment on this that it is not because of Communism that there is gender equality in China

*********************************

Historic Liberation of Chinese Women

In semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China, women were for a long time kept at the bottom of society. It was not until the first half of this century that the Chinese Communist Party led the Chinese people to wage a great and profound national democratic revolution on this ancient land. At the same time, a large-scale women's emancipation movement was launched, resulting in the historic liberation of Chinese women which won worldwide attention.

The impact of the several millennia of oppression and devastation imposed by the feudal patriarchal system on Chinese women was exceptionally grave. In political, economic, cultural, social and family life, women were considered inferior to men. This was profoundly manifested in the following ways:

Possessing no political rights, women were completely excluded from social and political life. Economically dependent, women were robbed of property and inheritance rights and possessed no independent source of income. Having no social status, women were forced to obey their fathers before marriage, their husbands after marriage and their sons if they became widowed. They had no personal dignity or independent status, and were deprived of the right to receive an education and take part in social activities. They enjoyed no freedom in marriage but had to obey the dictates of their parents and heed the words of matchmakers, and were not allowed to remarry if their spouse died. They were subjected to physical and mental torture, being harassed by systems of polygamy and prostitution, the overwhelming majority of them forced to bind their feet from childhood. For centuries, "women with bound feet" was a synonym for the female gender in China.

The successive invasions by the Western powers after the Opium War in 1840 aggravated the plight of Chinese women. In the full-scale war of aggression launched by Japan against China from 1937 on, most of the over 30 million Chinese who were brutally killed were women and children. Within a month after the Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, they committed over 20,000 rapes. The cruel oppression and exploitation of the Chinese people by imperialist and feudalist forces as well as bureaucratic capitalism pushed China to the brink of national subjugation and annihilation. It also plunged Chinese women into an abyss of misery never witnessed before.

For national salvation and self emancipation, Chinese women, along with the entire nation, waged a dauntless struggle that lasted for over a century. They also launched a succession of movements for women's liberation. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom enacted and promulgated a series of policies on sexual equality. The Reform Movement of 1898 advocated and ignited the wave to ban feet binding and establish schools for women. The 1911 Revolution kindled a feminist movement which focused on equal rights for men and women and participation by women in political affairs. These movements promoted the awakening of Chinese women. Nevertheless, they all failed to bring about a fundamental change in their miserable plight as victims of oppression and enslavement.

Ever since its birth, the Chinese Communist Party has made the achievement of female emancipation and equality between men and women one of its goals. Under the leadership of the Party, women were mobilized and organized to form a broad united front with working women in industry and agriculture as the main body. Women of all ethnic groups and walks of life united to stage popular women's liberation movements closely tied to the Chinese revolution. In Communist Party-led base areas in particular, the revolutionary political powers issued a series of decrees and regulations to ensure the rights of women and raise their status. This brought light and hope to women throughout the country.

For the women of China, the founding of the People's Republic of China ended the thousands of years of feudal oppression and enslavement and the history of being trampled and bullied by foreign aggressors. With an entirely new face, they have stood up and become the masters of new China like all citizens of the country. In 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was convened in Beijing. The 69 women present accounted for 10.4 percent of the delegates. They represented women throughout the country in discussions together with men delegates on matters of vital importance for the country's construction. At the conference, Soong Ching Ling was elected vice-chairperson of the Central People's Government. Li Dequan, Shi Liang and some other women were also placed in leading posts in the government. The Common Program, adopted by the conference which had the nature of a provisional constitution, solemnly declared the toppling of the feudal system which fettered women and stated that women enjoyed equal rights with men in the political, economic, cultural and educational fields and in other aspects of social life. Thus a new era in the emancipation of Chinese women was ushered in.

After the founding of the People's Republic, there was a surge of mass movements throughout the country to quickly change the backward economic and cultural outlook left over by old China and eradicate the antiquated system and outmoded customs that fettered, discriminated against and humiliated women. This effected an earth-shaking historic change in the social status and condition of women.

-- Land reform. In old China, poor farmers and farm laborers, who accounted for 70 percent of the rural population, owned only 10 percent of the land. Women had no right to own any land. In the very early days of the People's Republic, a widespread and profound land reform movement was carried out, in accordance with the principle of distributing land on the basis of the number of members in a family. Rural women obtained land, just like their male counterparts, and became masters of their piece of soil. This fundamentally altered the situation of economic inequality between men and women.

-- Universal balloting. The Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated in 1953 clearly stipulated that women enjoy the same rights to vote and stand for election as men. The subsequent elections conducted at grass-roots level nationwide in December that year were the first large-scale general ballot in Chinese history. More than 90 percent of women cast their vote, and the number of women people's deputies elected at grass-roots level accounted for 17 percent of the total. Among the deputies to the National People's Congress, elected somewhat later, women made up 12 percent, with females accounting for 11 percent of all representatives from ethnic minorities. This indicates that ever since the founding of the People's Republic, the participation of women of all ethnic groups in state administration has been not only written into the law but also an actual practice. In some Western countries, only one or two centuries after their founding, did the law stipulate that women had equal voting rights with men.

-- The move out of the home. Along with the economic rehabilitation and development, there appeared a nationwide upsurge of women stepping out of their homes to take part in social production. In 1957, around 70 percent of rural women engaged in agricultural work, and the number of urban women workers and staff reached 3.286 million, representing a 5.5-fold increase over 1949. This thoroughly transformed the situation in which women were excluded from social productive labor, providing them with an independent source of income.

-- Illiteracy eradication campaign. In old China, as many as 90 percent of women were illiterate. In order to raise the cultural level of the entire nation, New China launched a planned campaign to gradually wipe out illiteracy. The mass campaign witnessed three upsurges in 1952, 1956 and 1958. Various literacy classes, popular evening schools and workers' spare-time schools mushroomed in both rural and urban areas, and women attended these in their millions. By 1958, 16 million women had learned to read, and this represented an initial step in eradicating the ignorance and backwardness of Chinese women.

-- Publicity and implementation of the Marriage Law. The Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated in 1950, was the first statute enacted by New China. It clearly declared the abolition of the feudal marriage system characterized by arranged and forced marriage, male superiority and female inferiority, and disregard for the interests of children. Implementation of the new system was marked by freedom for both men and women in marriage, monogamy, sexual equality and protection of the legitimate rights of women and children. This signified a profound revolution in the patterns of wedded and family life that had prevailed for several thousand years in Chinese society. In the months that followed the law's promulgation, a large-scale mass campaign was staged throughout the country to publicize and implement the Marriage Law. This action resulted in the annulment of numerous feudal engagements, a rapid reduction in wife bashing and maltreatment, and freely chosen love marriages became prevalent. Through several years of hard work, the shackles imposed upon women by the millennia-old feudal marriage system was smashed and freedom of marriage was basically established.

-- Ban on prostitution. Brothels, prostitution and whoring were among the disgusting social phenomena left over by old China. Immediately after its founding, New China adopted resolute measures to outlaw prostitution. In November 1949, the Second People's Representative Conference of Beijing Municipality took the lead in adopting a decision to ban prostitution. The municipal government immediately closed all brothels and gathered prostitutes in designated places where they could be educated, have their thinking reformed, receive treatment for venereal diseases, and be provided with guidance to help them start normal lives and support themselves through their own work. Following the example of Beijing, all large, medium-sized and small cities in the country, including Shanghai and Tianjin, waged campaigns to wipe out prostitution. In a very short period of time, the sale of sex, a chronic social malady that seemed impossible to eradicate in old China and which seriously damaged the physical and mental health of women and degraded their dignity, disappeared, enabling society to take on a brand-new outlook.

By means of these large-scale mass movements, New China took only a few years to clean up the filth and mire left over from a feudal society that had lasted for thousands of years. It effected fundamental emancipation for women in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social and family life. This represented a significant transformation in the history of contemporary social development that China can be proud of. It was also an important contribution made by the Chinese revolution to the worldwide movement for women's liberation.

Govt. White Papers - china.org.cn

***************************************

It is time to open up your eyes and see reality beyond perverted national pride that makes you blind!

It is time you learn more of your own countries and not live will wool pulled over your eyes!

I may not be a votary of Communism, but I am not biased or parochial or blind to see the good they have done.

That is why I say that Mao has done more for China than any other Leader of China.
 

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
Comment on that my friend and don't obfuscate, go tangential and run away with your tail between the legs.

Check the injustice to women during the era before Communism.

And tell us that Communism has done nothing and is a failure and that there was gender equality always in Chinese history.

Tell us that your Red Chinese Govt White Paper is a whole lot of lies!

And that the Communist Party of China and their Govt are purveyors of fairly tales and falsehood par excellence!
 
Last edited:

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