Date: Tuesday 2 August 2022
Time: 5.00-6.00pm AEST
Location: Online event
Registration
CSC Bookworm Series
About this event
China’s local political leadership contains few women. Current scholarship on the topic co-locates women’s political participation with the representation of other marginalized social groups. In particular, it is argued that female politicians are simply tokenistic representatives of the marginalised: female, intellectual, ethnic minority and non-Communist Party members. An examination of those women who have served in provincial leadership positions over the last two terms suggests that such a characterisation is misleading. Rather, the evidence indicates that women have been appointed on the same grounds as male leaders in terms of age, education, CCP membership and experience. Gender disparities in the selection of provincial leaders are actually considerably more nuanced, the result of the lack of institutionalized policies and processes and women’s ongoing disadvantages in education, political networks and training.
About the speaker
Minglu Chen is a senior lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. Her research concentrates on social and political change in China, especially the interaction between entrepreneurs and the state and women’s political participation. She has published her research in The China Quarterly, The China Journal and Journal of Contemporary. She is the author of Tiger Girls: Women and Enterprises in the People’s Republic of China (Routledge 2011).