The budding of the women's movement in China was influenced by social and political reform movements during the late 19th Century. These early efforts advocated the abolition of foot binding and encouraged women to pursue an education. After the Republic was established in 1912, women began fighting for the rights to vote and be elected to office.
The process by which Chinese women acquired their political rights can be divided into four periods: the establishment of the Republic, the warlord period, the tutelary period of the Nationalist government, and the Constitutional period. Women faced distinct problems in each phase, and their successes and disappointments are instructive in understanding the concerns of women today.
The Establishment of the Republic, 1912
Prior to the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, many women were instrumental in assisting Dr. Sun Yat-sen in his revolutionary career. Perhaps the most famous female revolutionary was Chiu Chin, who later attempted to assassinate a high-ranking official of the Ching Dynasty, but failed and was captured. She was executed in 1907.
The key Wuchang revolution in Hupeh Province during October 1911, which quickly spread throughout the whole nation, led to the formation of the Republic. To show their support, women had formed several military action groups in various provinces. Later, when the provisional parliament gathered in Nanking to draft the Provisional Constitution, these female military groups reorganized and focused their efforts on achieving equal rights of political participation in the newly established Republic.
Members of the Women's Political Participation Coalition, headed by Tang Chun-ying, appealed to the provisional parliament to include an equal rights article in the new Constitution. Women were disappointed when the Provisional Constitution was promulgated without the article, and they appealed to Dr. Sun, asking him to propose an amendment to the Constitution that included equal rights. Dr. Sun, who was provisional President of the Republic, was sympathetic to their appeal, but delegates to the provisional parliament decided to leave this matter for formal consideration by the future parliament.
Not satisfied with this decision, members of the coalition demonstrated violently in front of the parliament buildings on March 20 and 30, 1912. On one occasion, they forcibly entered the parliament forum and broke windows. Their actions were widely publicized, and drew both intense approval and severe criticism. Even a women's organization in London sent a telegram to express support. Women ultimately failed at this stage to achieve their goals.
The Warlord Period, 1916-1927
This first attempt by women to struggle for equal rights very soon faded away as the newly established Republic entered a time of turmoil characterized by civil wars between warlords. These years of conflict saw a rise of greater provincial autonomy as the central government struggled with various warlords and their armies.
After 1920, several southern provinces even drafted their own constitutions. Women did not pass up these opportunities to fight for equal rights, and they actually succeeded—at least on paper—in Kwangtung, Chekiang, Hunan, and Szechwan. Unfortunately, these provincial constitutions were never effectively implemented.
By 1922, when the Peking government started to draft a new constitution, female students from several universities in Peking formed two organizations to fight for equal rights. One group focused its efforts on securing political rights, specifically the rights to vote and be elected to office. The second group sought women's rights in a broader' sense, concentrating on equal opportunities in such areas as education, freedom of marriage, and the right to inherit property. Despite their efforts, the Constitution promulgated in 1923 again disappointed all women.
The Tutelary Period of the Nationalist Government, 1928-1946
Women were more successful in the next stage of their movement toward securing their legitimate rights. The Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang or KMT) succeeded in unifying the country in 1928 following several years of effective military campaigns during the Northern Expedition led by Chiang Kai-shek.
In the spring of 1931, the Nationalist government called a national assembly to draft a constitution for the tutelary period. (Because the forms and practice of democratic government were new to the people of China, this period of political tutelage was seen as a time of transition to greater political maturity for both the people and their leadership.)
The leaders of three women's organizations in Nanking, the capital, asked other women's groups from around the country to send delegates to Nanking to join them in pursuing women's rights in this important event. After appealing to the KMT, ten female delegates were allowed to participate in the assembly meeting, but without the right to vote. Nevertheless, they were successful in having the equal rights article included in the Constitution. The assembly also passed resolutions asking the government to change the civil and criminal laws according to the spirit of equal rights.
The success of this attempt can be attributed to both the maturity of society and the support of the KMT. After 20 years of social and cultural change, especially under the influence of the new orientations and reforms prompted by the May Fourth Movement of 1919, Chinese society had become much more open than ever before. Greater numbers of women attended colleges and entered a broader range of active roles in society. The KMT, as a revolutionary party, had been sympathetic towards equal rights ever since the establishment of the Republic. Dr. Sun Yat-sen several times in his public speeches advocated equal rights for women, and as early as 1919 the KMT's political manifesto had asserted equal rights for women. Every party congress from that time onwards had included the promotion of women's status as one of its goals.
The Constitutional Period, 1947-
The tutelary Constitution laid the foundation for equal rights for women. It was therefore a natural development for women to maintain and even expand their rights when the Republic entered the Constitutional Period after World War II.
In 1946, 82 female delegates, including Madame Chiang Kai-shek, were elected to the National Assembly for the Drafting of the Constitution. Through their efforts, the final version of the Constitution not only included a general statement on equal rights (Article 7), but also specifically set down the principles that at least a certain number of female delegates were to be elected at all levels of national and local elections (Articles 26, 64, 134). These articles guaranteed women a minimum opportunity for political participation, which provided them with an initial impetus in the process of securing genuine equality with men.
The national election for the first formal congress was held in 1947. Individual women and women's organizations actively participated in the election campaign and in the voting. As a result, 201 females were elected to the 3,045-member National Assembly, 82 to the 760-member Legislative Yuan and 19 to the 180-member Control Yuan. It was a remarkable record compared with the achievements of women in Western countries of the same period.
It has become common in recent years for the number of women elected at all levels of offices to exceed the guaranteed legal minimum quota as written into the Constitution, but they still hold far less than an equal share of 50 percent. Chinese women today still have a long way to go before achieving real equality with men, especially in the marketplace where they face various forms of inequality in position, influence, and salary. The movement toward full, equal participation in all aspects of society continues unabated, however, and the women leaders who have distinguished themselves ever since the tumultuous years surrounding the establishment of the Republic have provided excellent examples for contemporary women to follow. — (Dr. Li-min Hsueh is an associate research fellow at the Chung-Hwa Institution for Economic Research. She received her Ph.D. in Consumer Economics from Cornell University.)