In Tailwind, in Headwind: Gender Quotas in China

Abstract

This article applies a broader, more holistic, less technically oriented approach to gender quotas in China. It places gender quotas in the historical context of China’s political development, delineates the silhouette of the overall political change over time and maps out the fluctuation of ideological and structural conditions for gender equality and hence gender quotas. The article shows how the validity of gender quotas depends on the coupling of women’s status to the Party’s overall political agenda and how the coupling has been a rather unstable one, leading to a swing between a strong tailwind on an occasion and a strong headwind on another. This ‘big picture’, the author argues, clears the ground for understanding quotas in the Chinese context and is the first step towards a solid and well-grounded study of the technical aspects of gender quotas in China.