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1 |
ID:
084431
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Publication |
2008.
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Summary/Abstract |
In the last three decades in China, few and declining numbers of women have participated in the main grassroots institutions of rural government, the village committee and the village branch of the Chinese Communist Party. This article examines a project aimed at addressing this problem, initiated in 2003 in Heyang county, Shaanxi, by one of China's largest and most influential women's nongovernmental organizations, West Women, together with the state-affiliated Women's Federation. The article discusses the goals, strategies, and short-term results of the Heyang Project. It then discusses the longer-term potential of the Heyang model for achieving greater gender equity and women's empowerment in rural China. Previous studies have critiqued Chinese approaches to the goal of increasing women's participation in village government, but have not questioned the desirability or need for the goal itself. In this article, the author takes the critique one step further, to provoke questions about the very desirability of increasing women's participation in village government. She concludes that when viewed in light of other recent trends, notably large-scale rural out-migration and tax reforms, increasing women's participation in village government may not have as desirable or significant an impact on gender relations as has previously been assumed.
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2 |
ID:
151101
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Summary/Abstract |
Women representation in decision-making and law-making is considered as
a vital step in women empowerment. The Martial Law regime of General
Pervez Musharraf1
brought in a drastic change in the composition of Pakistani
legislatures at both central and provincial levels and has increased 17 per cent
of reserved seats for women in 2002. However, this was much less than
the 33 per cent stated in Strategic Objective G-2 in the plan. This step was
deemed as a landmark in materialising the long-cherished dream of empowering
Pakistani women. The purpose of this study is to assess the discourse
on women’s political empowerment and their level of participation in mainstream
politics by analysing the gender gaps in the Election Laws—General
Elections of 2002, 2008 and 2013. Women are now present in all the legislative
assemblies of Pakistan from more than a decade. How far this change
has remained useful in addressing and solving the problems faced by Pakistani
women? Furthermore, how these women legislators have performed on specific
women-related issues or is this step just an extension of strengthening the
dominant families in Pakistani politics? The issue of quota discourses in the
Parliament is also discussed.
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