Village Women’s Participation in Local Public Affairs

Abstract

Do women have the same set of skills for engaging in decision-making and management as men? This question can be answered from different perspectives. Since the mid-1990s, activists in China have, with the help of funds from sources both domestic and from abroad, put great effort into training women to participate in village politics. The purpose has been both to improve and to demonstrate rural women’s ability to participate in local decision-making and community management.¹ Meanwhile, researchers who have performed empirical studies have fervently argued about women’s potential for political participation—paying particular attention to why such a potential might be weak and coming up with possible remedies (Lin 2004, 35; Zuo 2005, 163–164; Sun 2000, 97–103; Li and Yin 2004, 39–42; Wang and Shi 2005, 31–33). Activists and researchers have all evaluated the political ability of rural women by comparing their score on an evaluation index to the score achieved by rural men, and on this basis they have all concluded that rural women are less politically competent than rural men. This has usually lead to two different “solutions.” The first solution relies on having women compete politically with men on a “level playing field,” which has often led to the marginalization of women in the power structure.