The Evolution of Women’s Political Participation in the People’s Republic of China: From the Mid-Twentieth Century to the Present

Abstract

This article analyzes the dynamics of women’s political participation in China in the context of the transformation of the party-state system from 1949 to the present. The study is based on the institutional approach and biographical method, which make it possible to identify the scale of women’s political participation, their career trajectories, channels of political recruitment, forms of inclusion in decision-making, and their role in the system of governance. The authors distinguish four periods in the development of women’s political participation: 1) 1949–1956, when women’s participation was grounded in their revolutionary and symbolic capital, laying the foundation for the subsequent institutionalization of the expansion of their political agency; 2) 1957–1977, when women’s participation acquired an egalitarian-mobilizational and ideological character; 3) 1978–2011, when the so-called technocratic model of women’s entry into politics took shape based on professional, administrative, and party capital; 4) 2012 – the present, when the institutionalization of participation expanded women’s career opportunities in politics. The authors interpret the dynamics of women’s political participation as a gradual transition toward more stable representation in line with the goals of national development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 5). At the same time, it is noted that at the present stage women’s participation is most visible at the local and regional levels, whereas at the highest national levels of governance women’s presence remains individualized.