Just a few years ago, Women's Day was silent in the ocean of consumerism under the guise of "Goddess Day" and "Girls' Day", but fortunately these words have become out of place, and Women's Day has slowly begun to return to its original intention: to affirm the contributions and achievements of women in the economic, political and social fields.
On the one hand, the constant discussion of women's social situation on the Internet has gradually deepened the awareness of women's rights and interests; on the other hand, the real plight of some women, which has long been ignored, reminds people that true gender equality is still far away, and there are still many problems that have not yet been solved in reality.
People are now more aware than ever of how gender plays an impact. For the vast majority of people in the world, gender identity is accompanied by lifelong after birth, and women grow up under the expectation of "becoming a girl", inevitably branding gender in the process of socialization. "Women are acquired," de Beauvoir said, which means that in different social contexts, "women" may mean different responsibilities and destinies.
Most women today have the opportunity to educate and participate in work compared to previous generations, but there are still many supporting or new problems to face and solve. In a festival celebrating women's achievements, we need to honor the ancestors who fought for women's rights and see the mission of this generation – to stand on the shoulders of mothers and to expand the boundaries for our daughters.
Spark
International Women's Day, born in the early 20th century of the women's movement, in 1910 at the Second International Copenhagen Conference, Clara Zetkin proposed the establishment of International Women's Day; on March 8, 1914, women in many European countries conducted anti-war marches, three years later, on the same day, Russian women held a strike, and four days later, the Tsar abdicated.
Clara Zeitkin proposed the establishment of International Women's Day. Image source: Visual China
At that time, China did not lag behind the tide of the times, and carried out a series of women's liberation movements at the same time as the democratic revolution. Chinese first celebrated Women's Day in Guangzhou in 1924, when most people had never heard of the new festival, but the spirit of Women's Day quickly expanded. On March 8 of the following year, women from all over the world gathered in Beiping to protest the Duan Qirui government's exclusion of women from the right to vote; in the third year, large-scale Women's Day events were held in Shanghai, Hankou, Tianjin and other places.
"Only revolution is the only way for women to live", at that time women's liberation and revolutionary salvation were closely linked, the demands of many women's movements focused on participating in politics and deliberations, and the petition of Nanjing women on Women's Day in 1931 indirectly gave birth to the first female representative of the National Assembly of the Republic of China.
The Communists set more attention on the working women group, and in 1923 Xiang wrote in the inaugural issue of Vanguard: "The feminist and political participation movement excluded the majority of working women, and most of the working women's circle was the most painful part of the women's world." The Resolution on the Women's Movement at the Third National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which she drafted, including regulations on freedom of divorce, equal wages for men and women, equality in occupation, women's due inheritance rights, and protection of motherhood, still seem to be to the point, and are the key to safeguarding women's rights and interests.
The pioneer of the Chinese women's movement - Xiang Jingyu
According to the "2021 Global Gender Gap Report" released by the World Economic Forum, many countries around the world have basically eliminated the gap between men and women in the field of education, and China has ranked first in the world for many consecutive years in the indicator of higher education enrollment. Gender equality in education can be achieved in part because it was the first area of change. As far as China is concerned, after the Opium War, missionaries opened women's schools in China, and in the late Qing Dynasty, the Reformers introduced the idea of equal rights to China, and Liang Qichao mentioned the concept of advocating women's studies in many articles.
At this time, women themselves constitute the most important practical force for promoting gender equality. In 1905, Huixing, a Manchu woman, committed suicide by swallowing opium in exchange for the Qing government's funding for a girls' school. Thanks to the efforts of female groups, the number of girls' schools and the number of girls attending school increased significantly after the Republic of China, and the number of female students in primary schools reached 210,000 in 1919, double that of 1912.
In addition to education and political participation, the women's movement at that time also involved opposition to arranged marriages, physical emancipation and other fields. On March 8, 1927, prostitute Jin Yayu led a group of women to the streets in Wuhan, using naked and real female bodies to promote their desire for liberation. Such a vibrant gender equality movement ran through China's entire democratic revolution from the Opium War to the founding of New China.
Jump forward
Laws and policies relating to women reflect the will of the State to protect women's rights and interests, and the passions of women's liberation movements will eventually dissipate in history, and their achievements will continue only if they are defined in a clear way.
In 1950, New China promulgated the first Marriage Law, which established the principle of no-fault divorce, that is, the principle that one spouse can obtain a divorce judgment without proving the fault of the other party, which is embodied in the provision "Where both men and women divorce voluntarily, divorce is granted." If one of the men and women insists on divorce, the divorce shall also be granted if mediation by the district people's government and the judicial organ is ineffective." The freedom of divorce subverted the rules of traditional marriage, a principle that was quite progressive at the time, and even the United States, which everyone thought was open, was only established in law in the late sixties.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the status of Chinese women in the family, politics and economy was enhanced. The State has largely moved into the private sphere of childcare, schooling, employment, etc., replacing the role played by patriarchy. However, this is difficult to completely change the power relations in the family, especially after the reform and opening up, when public power gradually withdraws from the private sphere, the situation of women in the family has also received less attention.
But on the other hand, during this period, the specific and feminine image of women gradually broke through the original "men and women are the same" female workers. It was also at this time that a series of feminist theoretical works, such as "The Second Sex", were translated and introduced into China, a group of indigenous feminists were also conceived, and phenomena such as female trafficking began to be studied as academic issues. However, these are all happening in the professional fields of a very small number of people, far from the gender perception of ordinary people.
In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, the first time that China hosted a United Nations conference. At the opening ceremony, China promised the world that equality between men and women is the basic national policy of the mainland.
In 1995, the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women was held in Beijing. Image source: Visual China
Domestic violence against women was an important theme of that year's conference, and coincidentally, Sun Xiaomei and others in China also began to pay attention to domestic violence in the 1990s. Before the advent of the new millennium, domestic violence was still an unpopular concept in China, and the Women's Federation had described the behavior as "wife beating" in a questionnaire, while Sun Xiaomei found that not only husbands, but also many wives thought that beating was a normal thing after surveying sixty victims of domestic violence in Beijing.
However, domestic violence is a very serious phenomenon worldwide. During her research in various places, Sun Xiaomei witnessed many cases of women being hurt by their husbands. In the early 21st century, she published research reports into books, but the problem of domestic violence has always lacked attention in society.
In 2008, after Sun Xiaomei was elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress, she submitted nine legislative proposals on the anti-domestic violence law and won the opportunity to make the first proposal, fifteen years after she began to investigate. However, the road to the actual realization of national legislation is equally long, and the need for special legislation against domestic violence has been questioned, taking into account that the Marriage Law already clearly stipulates that "domestic violence is prohibited".
With the joint efforts of the Women's Federation and social welfare organizations, in 2012, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress took the Anti-Domestic Violence Law as a preparatory project, and three years later, the Anti-Domestic Violence Law was officially promulgated, which for the first time established a habeas corpus system and made violence in cohabitation relations also subject to legal interference.
On July 29, 2015, the State Council passed a draft anti-domestic violence law. Image source: People's Vision
Sun Xiaomei's example shows the importance of getting more women to move up, the introduction of the anti-domestic violence law is the current corner of the cause of promoting gender equality, and there are more people who have not yet succeeded in fighting for it.
The real world
As of 2015, a total of 143 countries around the world have written gender equality into law, but the law is not a reality, and the real reality is constantly reminding us that there are still countless women who are being discriminated against and exploited because of their gender.
From a worldwide perspective, the survival of women since the 21st century is not optimistic. In 2020, the United Nations combed through the situation since the Fourth World Conference on Women in a report and found that gender-based violence and female labor participation remained worrying. The cause of gender equality has not developed as rapidly as people expected in the last century.
The wheel of history is not always rolling straight forward, and the sudden outbreak of the new crown virus has made women take on more unpaid labor again, domestic violence has soared, and the gender pay gap has further widened. According to the World Economic Forum, the COVID-19 pandemic has set back the global process of gender equality by 36 years.
The number of women in China accounts for about one-fifth of the number of women in the world, so China's gender equality and women's development have a profound impact on the world.
Stills from Rebel
Another immediate problem is women's fertility, and in a modern society where everyone pursues individual development, the decline in fertility is almost an irreversible fact. When they are three children, how should women protect their rights and interests and find a balance between family and career? Demographer Ron In an interview with domestic media, Listeich said: "Whether the TFR (total fertility rate) can return to 2, the key variable is from an incomplete gender revolution to a complete gender revolution", that is, from allowing women to enter the public space to allowing men to enter the private space. The example of The Nordic countries such as Denmark and Sweden shows that equality between men and women is the real antidote to fertility.
As can be seen from past history, women's movements are often a process of calling for the weak – so that groups that have never been granted certain rights can also enjoy rights equally, including the right to do what and not to do. As someone has said, feminism is the idea of pursuing respect for the weak, and in this sense, Women's Day is a holiday worth celebrating for all mankind.
Gender equality is not something that happens overnight, but what is certain is that we are on this path.
On this path, bless every woman to be free to be herself.
Woman, you can.
Resources:
"History of the Feminist Movement in China"
World Economic Forum. Global Gender Gap Report 2021
UN Women. From The Insight to the Action: Gender Equality in the Context of COVID-19
The Paper. Freedom of divorce is seen in the light of changes in the provisions of the Marriage Act
Beijing News. "Sun Xiaomei: The Woman Behind the Anti-Domestic Violence Law"
Triptych Life Weekly. Why is the whole world "marrying late and having fewer children"? 》
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