Women's suffrage in China

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The women's suffrage in China was just as the women's suffrage in the other East Asian countries after the Second World War reached. In China , many women began calling for the right to vote soon after the Sun Yat-sen- led revolution of 1911 . That same year, the Guangdong Provincial Assembly granted them this right. Ten women were elected to this congregation in 1912. These were the first women to be elected to public office in Asia. In the first elections under the Chinese constitution of 1947–1948, women took part in national elections for the first time in the history of China. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was established and universal active and passive suffrage was guaranteed for both genders. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was established and universal active and passive suffrage was guaranteed for both genders. Since the elections in the People's Republic of China are conducted as sham elections with unit lists, there is no free choice associated with them.

Connection between the changed role of women, nationalism and progress

In China, women's political activities have always been associated with nationalism and the belief that the oppression of women, embodied in the tradition of the tying , is an obstacle to the nation's progress. This attitude of women is in contrast to the prevailing opinion in Britain or France, for example, where the establishment saw it as part of the national mission to keep women in their traditional roles. Nor have women's affairs been marginalized as in the West. Hence, women were an important part of the revolutionary movement of 1911 that led to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China : women smuggled weapons, planted explosives, and formed combat units. They saw parallels between their suppression by the men and the suppression of the native Chinese Han people , who made up the majority, by the Quings, who were Manchu people . As in Europe and India, it can be shown in China that women's suffrage became a pressing issue at a time of national uprising and constitutional amendments. As the example of Xiang Jingyu shows, women's access to leadership positions within the movement has been difficult and not independent of connection with a powerful man.

The nationalists had given Chinese women the right to vote under historical circumstances that also had a positive effect on women's suffrage in other countries: after a major national uprising - in the case of China's civil war and hostile invasion. This pattern is found in Africa and, as part of an attempt to counter a communist threat, also in Scandinavia and the Netherlands .

The Chinese communists rewarded Chinese women as soon as they were in power. Similarly, at the Erfurt Party Congress in 1891 , the German Social Democrats declared women's suffrage to be one of their goals. In Mao's writings early find very links between the revolutionary idea and the status of women in China, but the rigid doctrine that the people should have the power to implement long stood in the way. After all, the communists paved the way for women's suffrage not because they trusted democracy, but because they believed in the power of the masses.

Foreign influences

The Chinese women's suffrage movement was probably the only one in the world to follow Emmeline Pankhurst's line and use property destruction for its goal. Aletta Jacobs had met Chinese activists on her travels in 1912 and reported that, according to their statements, the cause of this radical approach was to be found in the Chinese press, which did not report on global feminism, but only on the struggle strategies of the British suffragettes . Thus, the Chinese could only have orientated themselves on these models.

history

Tang Qunying, (1871-1937), chairwoman of the Women's Suffrage Alliance , first female member of the Tongmenghui Revolutionary Society

Shortly after the Sun Yat-sen- led revolution of 1911, many women began calling for the right to vote. Tang Qunying founded the Chinese Suffragette Society in Beijing that same year . The main goal of this group was women's suffrage, but it also campaigned for the abolition of tying the feet , cohabitation , child marriage and prostitution.

That same year, the Guangdong Provincial Assembly granted them this right. After Martin, ten women were elected to this congregation in 1912. After Martin, these were the first women to be elected to public office in Asia. After Adams, the provincial government had only promised the right to vote, but then withdrew the promise and did not allow itself to be changed by protest actions by women. In Beijing, the provincial government was even besieged during protests.

At the national level, women continued the struggle for women's suffrage. Tang went with a women's delegation from the Women's Suffrage Alliance to the building where the National Assembly was meeting. The MPs refused to introduce women's suffrage and to recognize gender equality. In March 1912, the activists allied themselves with the Women's Suffrage Association and occupied the parliament building for three days. When the Speaker of Parliament refused to speak to them and they were evicted from the house, the police attacked them and damaged the building. The next day they were also supported by the Women's Suffragette Society , and the government was forced to use military force to remove the women. Sun Yat-sen wrote to Tang Qunying that he supported the cause of women's suffrage, but that it was a long-term goal.

Under President Yuan Shikai , who proclaimed himself emperor in 1915, the women's movement was crushed, magazines were banned, and women were legally prohibited from joining political groups.

After a civil war between the nationalists and the communists , the history of women's suffrage divides into two threads:

The nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek succeeded in 1928 in establishing a workable government. The political work of women here was limited to promoting literacy and social improvements. A draft constitution from 1936 proposed women's suffrage, but it was not put into practice. The constitution was not published until 1946 . The nationalists had originally campaigned for women and men to vote on the same terms. In order to achieve this goal, the constitution of December 25, 1946 provided for a minimum quota of women in addition to the elected female MPs in the two national chambers of parliament under Article 26 paragraph 7. In the first elections under this constitution in 1947–1948, women participated in national elections for the first time in China's history. Of the 2,953 MPs, 167 were on the women's list, a further 126 women were elected via constituencies and the lists of professional groups, Chinese abroad and minorities. However, because of the success of the communists who defeated the nationalists the following year, this achievement is often overlooked.

The Communist Party had women heavily involved in political work in the 1930s and early 1940s. In 1946 between a quarter and a third of the party members were women. Women were involved in political struggles. Despite the civil war, nationalists and communists formed an alliance in 1937 to oppose the Japanese invaders . Women's organizations flourished in liberated areas and women often took on leadership roles. In a village where women were denied the right to vote, women refused to recognize the chosen man and called on women to go on a sex strike to put pressure on husbands. The prohibition of women's suffrage was then lifted.

After the Second World War, the civil war between nationalists and communists revived. The nationalists were defeated and the People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. General active and passive suffrage was introduced for both sexes. Chinese historiography exaggeratedly positively portrayed the pre-1949 revolutionary role of the communist party in gaining women's suffrage and devaluing the non-communist women's suffrage movement.

The first delegation of 147 women to the National People's Congress (with 1,226 members) took place in April 1954.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 204.
  2. ↑ a b Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 355.
  3. ↑ a b c Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 356.
  4. ↑ a b c Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 357.
  5. ↑ Christina Gilmartin: The Politics of Gender in the Making of the Party . In: Tony Saich, Hans J. Van de Ven (Eds.): New Perspectives on the Chinese Communist Revolution . ME Sharpe, New York (NY) 1995, ISBN 978-1-5632-4428-5 , p. 46
  6. ↑ a b c d Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 366.
  7. ↑ a b c Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 359.
  8. ^ Aletta Jacobs: Memories: My Life as an International Leader in Health, Suffrage and Peace. New York, Feminist Press 1996, p. 161. quoted from Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 359.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 358.
  10. ↑ a b Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 364.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 365; Thomas Weyrauch, China's democratic traditions, Heuchelheim, 2016, pp. 211 ff., 216 ff .; Articles 7 and 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of China of December 25, 1946, http://www.taiwandocuments.org/constitution01.htm#C002_ .
  12. ↑ Elizabeth Croll: Feminism and Socialism in China. London, Routledge 1978, p. 220. Quoted from: Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.
  13. ↑ Louise Edwards and Mina Roces: Bourgeois Women and Communist Revolutionaries? De-Revolutionizing the Chinese Women's Suffrage Movenemt. In: Maja Mikula: Women, Activism and Social Change. Oxford, Routledge 2005, p. 3. Quoted from: Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 366.See also: Louise Edwards: Gender, Politics and Democracy: Women's Suffrage in China. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press 2008.
  14. ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 81; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People%27s_Congress#People's_Republic