In the recent past, democracy has spread to almost every part on the world. However, as this takes place, some states have retained rules dubbed as oppressive. China for example is an authoritarian state because the government determines what its citizens do without necessarily involving the members of the public.[1] As a result, it is almost difficult to find forms of rhetoric that are both permissible and expressive of discontent in China.[2] For this reason, people gauge their positions in the government based on their gender, class, age, and even region. In contrast to this practice, women from rural areas especially those in their thirties migrate to urban areas in search for jobs.[3] Although this practice is against the government’s wishes, the practice continues to thrive. This essay evaluates the position of Chinese women in their thirties and the way they act against the state practices and norms. The essay argues that even if these women contravene government’s wishes and act against Chinese culture, they do not change their roles in families once they acquire education and secure employment.
In relation to this issue, the essay asserts that recent reforms have forced Chinese families to educate girl child. In addition, because Maoism is changing to the extent that the government does not guarantee employment to all people, these women are forced by circumstances to migrate to urban areas to look for jobs. However, even if these women do this, their positions in societies do not change as they do in liberalized countries where women’s role change once they acquire education and secure employment.
To start with, Chinese women have always held inferior positions in their societies. This has been a traditional practice aimed at undermining women because they are expected to get married once they are ready to do so. Accordingly, a girl child has always been neglected to the extent that she does not receive education. However, with the latest family policy of one child per every family, families toil to educate their girls, and in most cases give them the best education.[4] In so doing, women qualify for jobs they did not qualify for before. In addition, they become competitive in the job market as men. As a result, the practice has challenged the position of men in Chinese societies even if it has not changed significant because men retain their positions as the leaders of their families.
With such a transformation together with the need to sustain families, rural-urban migration has become a rampant practice in China.[5] This migration is necessitated by the need to secure employment. It is also necessitated by the rising poverty levels in rural areas that started rising the moment the government stopped guaranteeing employment to people living in rural areas.[6] Although the government does not entertain rural-urban migration, women in their thirties do migrate to urban areas to look for jobs. Majority of these people do so because of the high poverty levels in rural areas. Others do so after they graduate from school. Although some of them do not plan to stay in the cities, the authoritarian government has not been able to deal with the issue in totality because Maoism is changing.[7] Indeed, the government does not guarantee jobs to these people as it used to do under Maoism. Accordingly, it has not been able to address this problem as it used to do before.
In spite of the transformations in the modern China, women are expected to retain their positions as mothers and wives. Accordingly, even if those in their thirties migrate to urban areas to look for jobs, and probably find them, they still play their roles as homemakers. They look after children and perform all home chores. In addition, they respect their husbands, as traditions demand them to do. In addition, because families are the basic units of the Chinese societies, they are supposed to sire children, but within the new family policy. As such, the society does not allow women to shun their duties even after they acquire education and secure employment.[8] Women in their thirties are the most affected because they are the ones looking for jobs in urban areas. At the same time, they are in the process of getting married.
Although there are significant changes in the lives of Chinese women, the practice remains almost the same. It is true that the women’s status is not set at birth as it was done in the past. It is also true that women acquire education, migrate to urban areas in search of jobs, and compete with men in doing so. However, in the midst of all these things, women are expected to retain their positions as mothers and wives. Accordingly, even if women in their thirties migrate to urban areas in search of job, their positions in families do not change significantly because they are still the homemakers. In relation to this fact, it is worth noting that although Maoism is changing in China, the positions of women in families are still determined by their gender.
Bibliography
Althusser, Louis. Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation), 1970.
Attane, Isabelle. “Being a woman in China today: demography of gender.” China perspectives, 4 (2012): 5-15.
Dr. Diana, Fu. Popular contention in China. Lecture notes. 2016.
Fu, Diana. “A cage of voices: producing and doing Dagongmei in contemporary China.” Modern China 35, no. 5 (2009): 527-561.
Hershatter, Gail. Women in China’s twentieth century. London: University of California Press, 2007.
Lee, Ching. Against the law: labor protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt. London: University of California Press, 2007.
Zhang, Nana. “Performing identities: Women in rural–urban migration in contemporary China.” Geoforum 54 (2014): 17-27.
[1] Hershatter Gail, Women in China’s twentieth century. (London: University of California Press, 2007), 127.
[2] Dr. Diana, Fu. Popular contention in China. (Lecture notes, 2016).
[3] Zhang, Nana. Performing identities: Women in rural–urban migration in contemporary China. Geoforum, 54 (2014), 17.
[4] Zhang Nana, Performing identities: Women in rural–urban migration in contemporary China. Geoforum, 54 (2014): 19.
[5] Fu Diana, A cage of voices: producing and doing Dagongmei in contemporary China.” Modern China, 35(5). (2009), 531.
[6] Althusser Louis, Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation) (1970), 137.
[7] Dr. Diana, Fu. Popular contention in China. (Lecture notes. 2016).
[8] Attane Isabelle, Being a woman in China today: A demography of gender. China perspectives, 4 (2012), 7.
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