A Study of Relationship Between Chinese Authoritarian State and Women Activism for Economic Rights in China Since 1990 with Special Reference to the Role Played by Acwf – Analysis from Marxist Perspective

A Study of Relationship between Chinese Authoritarian State and Women Activism for Economic Rights in China since 1990 with special reference to the role played by ACWF – Analysis from Marxist Perspective
Asoke (Rocky) Mehera MBA/MPA (SCU, Australia); MA History (BU, India)
(Ex – Teacher, La Mart College of Technology, Sydney; Project Officer - Terex)
Address: Terex 585 Curtin Ave E, Eagle Farm QLD 4009, Australia.
Phone: + (61) 7 3868 9600; Mob: [phone].
Email: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
Keywords: Women Activism China; State & NGOs China; Gender Inequality China; Women in Agriculture & Industry; Women Labour China
Article Classification: Viewpoint/Perspective
Abstract:
This article examines interaction (both collaboration and confrontation) of state corporatism and embedded pluralism of the social organizations championing the economic rights of women in China. This article proposes an interpretation of changes in patterns of gender inequality in agrarian and industrial sector with special reference to the role played by two major NGOs, namely ACWF & ACFTU. As most of the social organizations are sharing a status of ‘dependent autonomy’ with the state, the issues regarding economic welfare of women has been neglected. Ideological transition of china from socialism to state-capitalism has been studied to understand the linkage between state involvement and women-activism for socio-economic rights through women NGOs, as manifested since 1990. I have dealt with China’s transition from a socialist state (focussed on attaining gender equality as propounded by Mao) to one that concentrated upon meeting the standards of a capitalist society have degraded women’s status.

Introduction to Gender Analysis in China:
Gender analysis is a macro methodology and a more systematic way of thinking. Its purpose is to reveal the gender problem in order to protect the legal and socio-economic rights of women and secure overall development through mutual efforts of the government and nongovernmental organizations. Gendered patterns of inequality remain the most salient feature of women’s participation in economic activities related to agrarian and industrial sector. There is a need for further research regarding cross-sector and cross-region gender analysis of labour market.

The members of All China Women’s Federation (ACWF) have been critical to Western Feminism, regarding it as bourgeois individualism. The abstract forces of capitalism - commercialization, proletarianization etc. are posited as the sources of women’s oppression, not the ‘exploitation’ of women by men. Marxists have rejected radical feminism due to its lack of sensitivity to the interrelations between sexual and other forms of social oppression such as class, race and nationality. Although, analytically, we can separate class oppression from sexual oppression, capitalism from patriarchy, but in reality they are inextricably interlinked.

Effect of the Transition to Capitalist Market Economy: Women’s Progress under Economic Restructuring since 1978

China’s transitions – from a strictly patriarchal society, to a communist state that focused on attaining gender equality, to one that concentrated upon meeting the standards of a capitalist society – have revolutionized women’s status in society. The state under Xiaoping’s (1978 – 1992) had re-evaluated its workforce and reinstated patriarchal values for the sake of efficiency and budding market competition. Chinese state has to create and sponsor NGOs in order to transfer to them certain functions that it used to perform itself under the command system of the socialist era. In the economic sphere, the government has sought to reduce its direct management role by establishing intermediary organizations, such as trade associations and chambers of commerce, to perform sectoral coordination and regulation functions. Actually, the weakening of the gender conflict in late 1980s can be linked with the fact that China was marching towards the growth of global market economy during the last few years of Deng’s rule.

NGOs in reform-era China represent both challenge and continuity in state-society relations. It is easy to observe the semi-official nature of some NGOs and the state’s tight formal control of the sector demonstrates the evidence of continuity. The officially organized NGOs are comprehensively dependent on the state agencies that created them and behave more like subordinate units of the agencies than independent entities. Actually, Private entrepreneurs are depended on official patronage for access to bureaucratically allocated resources, political protection and socio-political legitimacy. In 1993, for example the central government ordered all state agencies to de-link themselves from the economic entities they had established.

Social activists are confronting challenge of consumerism and commercialization as advocated by market economy. Surpluses of women seeking employment immediately after the birth of market economy led to the growth of a “pink-collar” ((i.e. low wage sales & service jobs) labour force comprised of underpaid workers in clerical and sales departments. In the 1980s, ACWF directed its attention toward reducing the hardship of poverty by encouraging work in the courtyard economy, thus increasing women’s job prospects (Jacka, 1997).

Women have been especially disadvantaged in mainly two ways: women are forced to retire at younger age than men and women receive less social support after being laid off. Li Xiaojiang (Fifty Years, How Far Have We Reached: Reflection on the Liberation and Development of Chinese Women, 2000) has opined that there have been very little bottom-up initiatives from the society to advance women’s interests and the Chinese government is still exerting control in all forms of social organizations. Actually, the emerging new society of the post-1978 period has created less positive phenomena such as the development of gender inequality and commodification of women.

Mapping Policy Influence on Women’s Organizations:
State Corporatism vs. Embedded Pluralism:

It is essential to map out the policy influence on women’s organizations. Chinese women’s organizations, mass organizations and formal grassroots organizations represent two emerging modes of policy influence in contemporary China; active state corporatism and embedded pluralism. As an alternative to the civil society/pluralism model, a concept of state corporatism emerged to explain state-society relations in China. Active state corporatism embodies the adoption of Chinese mass organizations to changing social conditions and a globalizing world. Actually, the state needed trustworthy social organizations to transmit the voices of masses in the reform era (i.e. post 1978 period). There is no doubt that active state corporatism incorporates better opportunities to represent the interests of the constituencies than symbolistic state corporatism. The key characteristics of social organizations under a corporatist arrangement are as follows: state license, hierarchically ordered structure, state-controlled selection of leaders and articulation of interests. Both Civil society/pluralism and corporatism is an instrument of measuring organizational autonomy.

Instead of isolating from the state, the formal grassroots organizations take on non-confrontational attitudes to embed themselves in the complex socio-political networks. But, this embeddedness is not at the price of organizational autonomy. These organizations can still follow their own agendas even though they cooperate with the government. This special mode of policy influence in China can be called “embedded pluralism”.

The arbitrary use of administrative power by the state agents, bureaucratic control over the resources, constant fluctuation in government policies and an ineffective legal system, have all contributed to an uncertain environment for NGOs in China. Many popular NGOs have engaged in entrepreneurial activities with their contacts in the government. Actually, the state has failed to discipline its own agents and bureaucrats; whose protection and complicity enable these NGOs to evade supervision and engage in inappropriate activities to generate resource.

The self-serving entrepreneurialism of the NGOs (sometimes as part of sponsoring agencies) has apparently been a fairly common problem. Although scholars are still debating about the nature of the Chinese state entrepreneurialism and corporatist state control over NGOs in reform era; but the nature of state- civil society interaction can be summarized as “dependent autonomy”. As per “fragmented authoritarianism”, the state has retained its dominant role in socio-economic sphere and the authority below the very peak of the system has become more fragmented and disjointed as a result of economic reform.

The vast majority of NGOs are interested mainly in finding ways to exploit state-controlled resources for their own benefit, rather than playing the political role conventionally ascribed to civil society. There are various ways for NGOs to advance their interests, such as forging patron-client ties with officials, operating through networks of personal relations that cut cross the state-society divide or providing political support to the state in exchange for its sponsorship.

The growth of autonomous NGOs in China will not necessarily result in the development of a thriving civil society, which needs a competent state structure and impartial legal system. The unethical alliance between local officials and entrepreneurs is basically for the mutual benefit and above all, at the expense of the policies of the central state and the interests of other social groups. Public interest has not been served properly as the state lacks the capacity to enforce rules within the welfare sector largely comprised by NGOs. It is not a good foundation for a healthy civil society. Dependent autonomy is not a type of state- society relations that favours the interest of the state (Lu, 2012).

Towards a Marxist Feminist Synthesis:

Marxist Feminist thinkers have attempted to assess the world economic development of capitalism as a contradictory force for the liberation of women (Federici, 2004; Mies, 1986). Marxists and radical feminists have all characterized women as doubly alienated in capitalism because of the public/private split that relegates their work as house- workers and psychologically denies them full personhood and human rights (Okin, 1989; Pateman, 1988). Criticizing the ‘bourgeois feminism’, Eleanor Leacock and several other women Marxist anthropologists have argued that the roots of female subordination lie in private property, class hierarchy and the production of exchange value (Engels, 1972). Marxists agree with liberal WID (Women in Development School) thinkers that economic modernization under capitalism actually marginalized Third World women.

Based on the principles Marxism, socialist feminism argues that the mode of production in the economic institution is the determinator of all other social relations and structures in capitalist societies, including gender relationships. To achieve women’s equal status with men, therefore, the society must first of all realize public ownership of the means of production in the economic institution.
During the time of Mao, socialist China has been able to establish programs and organizations designed and organized from the top to protect women and increase women’s status.

Government Policies for Regulating NGOS:

The autonomy of the NGOs arise in part because of the limited capacity of central government to control NGOs, and in part because of the fragmented and non-monolithic nature of the state, which enables individual bureaucratic patrons to protect particular NGOs, especially officially-organised ones (Yiyi Lu, 2012). Wary of the potential threat to its authority and rule, the government has adopted a policy of forestalling the formation of NGOs which might constrict its autonomy in formulating economic and social policies. For example, Civil Affairs Department Guidelines indicate that no NGOs should be allowed to set up by ‘specific social groups’, such as migrant labourers or laid off workers.

It is essential to relate NGO studies to different associated issues such as state capacity, political culture and the evolving state-society relations in China. Its elitist political culture is not conducive to collective action and civil society activism. A research on NGOs carried out in 2000 shows that popular NGOs are abstained from directly criticizing the local authorities and police, whose goodwill is important for their existence. Many officially organized NGOs at local levels are simply tools for local government agencies to create agency slush funds.

The FWCW and NGO Forum have introduced the ethos of global feminism in China, which has impacted the native state feminism. The single most important strategy that the Platform for Action (Beijing, 2005) offers is “gender mainstreaming”, which demands that government integrate a gender perspective in to evaluation of legislation and implementation of programs. The Chinese state failed to provide an overall comprehensive legal and regulatory framework in China to enable gender equality inspite of introducing various laws - Women’s Law (1992), Law on the Protection of Women 's Rights and Interests (LPWRI, 1992), Labour Law (1995), Beijing Platform for Action (1995), Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2001 - 2010) and five/ten year comprehensive programs for the development of women. Actually, state is more interested in meeting the ever-growing demands of market economy, rather than providing full autonomy to social organizations instead of a ‘dependent autonomy’.

Key Challenges & Priorities for Gender Equality Interventions:

The key challenges identified by Chinese researchers and scholars on gender issues are as follows: feminization of poverty in both rural and urban areas, increasing inequality in the labour market in terms of income gaps, discrimination in hiring and unequal access to credit, and women’s participation in political decision-making and governance. As far as priorities for gender equality intervention is concerned, it is essential to conduct legal (i.e. Labour & Land Laws) and civil society reforms to improve the enabling environment and reduce gender gaps. The Chinese government and judiciary need to clarify whether or not equality rights have legal precedence over other rights, such as the enterprise’s right to economic efficiency (hiring and firing workers without consideration of gender equality provisions in the Labour Law), or the village’s right to redistribute land (without consideration for gender equality provisions in the Land Contracting Law). Women’s rights activists, women researchers and NGOs dealing with gender issues indicate there is considerable scope for capacity building and technical assistance to promote gender equality.

Role of Two Major NGOs - ACWF & ACFTU:

The organizational embodiment of state feminism in China is the All China Women’s Federation (ACWF, 1949), which support women’s liberation under the Chinese Communist Party. The Department of Women Workers (DWW) under All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU, 1925) is charged with the affairs of female members of trade unions. Several bottom-up organizations were also founded in the 1980s in the wake of negative consequences of the economic reform for women. In regard to establishment of social organizations, the Chinese government relaxed its control in different sectors before the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW, 1995).

Although in some ways functioning as a quasi-governmental agency and circumscribed to a certain extent by its close association with the government, the ACWF is still the largest non-governmental women’s organization in the country and a major stakeholder on women’s issues. One of the main activities of ACWF includes labour protection, poverty-reduction through employment and the establishment of funds for specific marginalized female communities. According to the statistics of letters to the ACWF in the year 2000, about 20 per cent of them are concerned about labour rights protection including industrial injury, dismissal and contract dispute.
ACFTU is not an independent union and acts as a state organ, closely subordinated to the Chinese Communist Party. The Department of Women Workers (DWW) under All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) was the drafter and major reviser of Regulations Concerning the Labour Protection of Female Staff and Workers. According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Population Studies in China in 1991 (Sampling Survey Data of Women’s Status in Contemporary China), there is a strong negative correlation between female representation and income levels in China’s occupational structure in urban areas. Women were more likely to be employed in industrial production and service areas, but much less likely to be employed in executive and managerial positions. A unique project has been undertaken under “3+1 mechanism” (2002 - 2005) led by ILO and Ministry of Labour and Social Security, China Enterprise Confederation, ACFTU and ACWF. Its long term objective was to enhance gender mainstreaming capacity and improve employment policies in the country. In Beijing +5 Symposium (2000), the two areas that carved out for in-depth attention are poverty and law/human rights.
Criticism of ACWF & ACFTU:

As the state and ACWF collaborated under Deng’s reign, it is easy to notice some internal changes to the structure of ACWF. Actually, ACWF serves as the government’s direct connection with Chinese women. It actually functioned both as a representative of women’s interests and as a bureaucracy closely linked with the CCP leadership. Internal forces and external pressure have worked to push the ACWF to function less as an organization taking orders from the state and more in the domain of representing women’s interests. Actually, restrictive government rules and regulations have not been conducive to grassroots initiatives of the NGOs. Gao Xiaoxian, the director of ACWF’s research institute in Shaanxi province, believes that ACWF should take on the responsibility of addressing some of the some of the structural constraints women face – patriarchal norms, high illiteracy among rural women and capitalist exploitation of factory girls in coastal cities. Also, the ACFTU’s response to the crisis is rather passive and unfortunately, it is focused on the survival of enterprises at the expense of worker benefits. Indeed it seems that even some of their reforming efforts have been shunted to the back while they concentrate on fulfilling their role as a quasi-government body.

China 's Accession to WTO in 2001 - Economic Challenges for Women:

The report entitled “China 's Accession to WTO: Challenges for Women in the Agricultural and Industrial Sectors – Overall Report (2003)” found that there is a clear and deepening trend of feminization in the agricultural sector and of marginalization of women in the industry sector. Survey data reveal that in the capital/technology-intensive high-turnover export industries most women are engaged temporarily in repetitive physical tasks with low skill requirements and correspondingly low wages.

Market competition will be increasingly tense in town and village enterprises, the pressure of industrial restructuring will be more serious, and the difficulty of absorbing labourers will grow, making it harder for female labourers to find non-agricultural jobs locally. As urban governments are making it tougher for outsiders to move into formal urban jobs, it is easy to notice that rural migrants will shift into informal-sector jobs in China 's urban setting.

As men move to more remunerative sectors, we can notice a gradual trend towards feminization of agriculture with women 's share of agricultural employment rising from 52.5 per cent in 1996 to 55.5 per cent in 2001. The irrational land-distribution and inadequate social-security systems also serve to keep farming women 's status low. The application for micro-credit is based on the family unit and often requires the name of the householder (i.e. male) in the permanently registered residence.

With the entrance to the WTO, the percentage of women employed in non-state economic sectors and informal sectors has risen, so women 's exclusion from social security will grow accordingly. Women 's low economic and social status is manifested in different outcomes as follows: declining net job opportunities, increasing income gap with men, marginalized employment options and worsening social security support. Unfortunately, there is no relevant law protecting informal-sector employment in China with regard to salary standards, labour relations/disputes and labour security/protection.
Criticism of State to Solve Women’s Economic Issues:

Chinese state under Deng has been criticised by radical Marxists’ for moving beyond the ideological extremism to introduce market economy, which paves the way for the state withdrawal of employment security and welfare provisions. The joint program (i.e. “Poverty-Reduction Action for Women”) conducted by the state and NGOs is quite insufficient to alleviate poverty by very small loans and helping women to migrate from eastern to western cities for employment. The "Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Law" (2002) is not adequate enough in offering development opportunities for women to start up SMEs.
Women’s status of dependence and affiliation will not change as long as land distribution is manipulated by a patriarchal system in rural China. Some scholars are concerned that China’s entrance in the WTO may well lead to the reduction in farm income, with declining economic status reinforcing the relatively low social status of women in the countryside. On the other hand, the gender gap in industrial labour payment can be explained by the concentration of women in low-wage sectors. A recent study indicates that in 1999, Beijing women workers’ income was only 73 per cent of men’s, compared to 86 per cent in 1995 (Ji, 2001).

There has to be targeted efforts at reducing the gender gap with respect to the access and control of resources and employment. Possible areas of poverty reduction strategies include: gender sensitive participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation methodologies for poverty reduction programs; ways to mainstream gender in regional development strategies and programs; gender-targeted poverty reduction programs, such as technical training and the provision of micro-credit for women who are now responsible for the lion’s share of farm labour in many areas. Hence the government should strengthen the enforcement of gender equality clauses in the Labour Law and the Land Contracting Law. The disproportionate lay-offs of women workers during the SOE reform process should be re-examined. Other identified needs are: modalities to establish a sustainable, effective maternity insurance program; policies and mechanisms to deliver public services to migrants; and modalities to enforce the sex discrimination clauses of the Labour Law.

Policy Recommendations:

* Making government to promote the interests of women workers in vulnerable sectors, such as land-intensive farming, through more gradual tariff reductions.

* Encouraging Non-governmental professional unions for organizing relevant production and technical training in major female-dominated export industries such as textiles, weaving and cotton.

* Creating incentives and support for women entrepreneurs in rural areas, for example, tax cuts, access to credit for those processing agricultural products and subsidies to businesses for hiring women labourers.

* Give preferential land leases and tax credits for rural educational networks set up by urban voluntary vocational education institutions to enable rural women to learn new technologies and acquire new skills.

* Promoting a gender equality perspective in the formulation of budget protocols to ensure that both men and women benefit equally from public expenditure (The Beijing Platform for Action, 1995).

* Ensuring gender equality regarding access to productive resources (i.e. land control) and to improve micro-credit services for women in agricultural or informal sectors.

* Eradicate inequalities in the labour market including, wage disparities by gender, discrimination in recruitment and dismissal.

* Ensuring the legal rights and interests of women, for example, a committee for the safeguard of rights and interests of women might be set up in the People 's Congress.

Expected outcome

The benefits of this study relates to NGOs, women’s organizations, social pressure groups, community stakeholders, state policy-makers and academics. All stakeholders can use the results of this study to improve and reorient their plans for better implementation of welfare mechanism directed towards achieving gender equality. This can potentially upgrade and expand the orbit of women’s economic activism against the authoritarian state corporatism. Through the in-depth investigation and interaction with the operators of social organizations, the relevance of the frequently applied theoretical frameworks – state corporatism and embedded pluralism will be examined. The emerging results will be of particular significance for the application of an appropriate theory that can explain the relationship of state corporatism and women activism within the overall purview of post-socialist patriarchal environment.

This study shows that this socialist system (during 1949 - 1976) has provided an advantageous environment for women to achieve equal status with men. The Communist revolution of 1949 has brought an end to the thousands of years of male-dominated history, what Stacey terms “Confucian Patriarchy” (1983), but this golden opportunity could not been capitalised due to the deviation from proper socialist principles as propounded by Mao. Actually, the “Patriarchal Socialism” is the contribution of post-Mao leadership ruling since 1978. During the previous two decades in China; gender inequality persists at the institutional and structural level and it is very likely prominent at the individual and micro level as well.

Conclusion:

Since the economic reform of 1978, women have been suffering setbacks in terms of gaining equal status in regard to economic rights in agrarian and industrial sector. The feminization of agriculture, employment marginalization of industrial women and the expansion of informal-sector female employment will increasingly marginalize women from the social-security system and leave them more vulnerable. The unusual interaction between the ‘fragmented authoritarianism’ of state and the ‘embedded pluralism’ of social organizations has paved the way for ‘dependent autonomy’. Actually, it is difficult to blame the ACWF and ACFTU; because both are integral part of ruling hierarchy and most of their power emancipates from the legislative powers the government and the civil servant staff. It can be finally concluded by following Leta Hong Fincher, a doctoral candidate at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, that has there has not been any concrete achievement at all for women in the last couple of decades and the economic status of women is actually decreasing.

Bibliography:

Hildebrandt, T. (2013). Social Organizations and the Authoritarian State in China. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Jacka, T. (2007). Women’s Work in Rural China. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ji, Li. (2001). Gender as a Determinant in Income Differentials. Beijing: Academy of Educational Sciences.

Jin, Y. (2002). “The All China Women’s Federation: Challenges and Trends.” In Hsiung, P., Jaschok, M., & Milwertz, C. (Eds.), “Chinese Women Organizing Cadres, Feminists, Muslims, Queers”. Oxford: Berg Publishers.

Lin, Z.B. (Ed). (2001). The Tutorial on Gender and Development. Beijing: China Agriculture University Press.

Lu, Y. (2012). Non-Governmental Organisations in China (China Policy Series). United Kingdom: Routledge.

Stacey, J. (1983). Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China. Berkely: University of California Press.

Wesoky, S. (2000). Chinese Feminism Faces Globalization. New York: Routledge.

Wolf, M. (1985). Revolution Postponed, Women in Contemporary China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Yaziji, M., & Doh, J. (2009). NGOs and Corporations: Conflict and Collaboration (Business, Value Creation, and Society). United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Yu, J., & Guo, S. (Eds.) (2012). Civil Society and Governance in China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Journals:
Bauer, J., Wang, F., Nancy, E. R., & Zhao, X. (1992). Gender Inequality in Urban China, Education and Employment. Modern China, Vol. 18 No. 3, July 1992, pp. 333-370.

Hsu, J., & Hasmath, R. (2013).The Local Corporatist State and NGO Relations in China, Journal of Contemporary China, 23(87).

Leung, A.S.M. (2003). Feminism in Transition: Chinese Culture, Ideology and the Development of the Women 's Movement in China; Asia Pacific Journal of Management, September 2003, Volume 20, Issue 3, pp. 359-374.
Lu, Y. (2007). “NGOs in China: Development Dynamics and Challenges”, China Policy Institute, Discussion Paper 18, pp. 2-6.

Tan, H., & Wang, L. (2012). The Policy Influence on Women’s Organizations in China; Women’s Policy Journal of Harvard, Spring 2012, Volume 9, pp. 42-56.
Wang, Z. (1997). Maoism, Feminism, and the UN Conference on Women: Women 's Studies Research in Contemporary China. Journal of Women 's History, v8, n4, pp. 126-53.

Online Articles:

China 's Accession to WTO: Challenges for Women in the Agricultural and Industrial Sectors – Overall Report. United Nations Development Programme in China, July 2013. Available at: http://www.undp.org.cn/downloads/gender/GenderWTO-en.pdf (accessed on 10 June 2013).
Li, Y. (2000). Women’s Movement and Change of Women’s Status in China. Journal of International Women 's Studies, 1(1), 30-40. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol1/iss1/3 (accessed on 10 June 2013).

China: Country Gender Review (2002). East Asia Environment & Social Development Unit. Available at: http://www.ctc-health.org.cn/file/2009090201.pdf (accessed on 10 June 2013).

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