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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 Sep. - 6 Oct. 1999 Issue No. 449 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 Sep. - 6 Oct. 1999 Issue No. 449
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Where are the 'iron girls'?
By Mariz Tadros"The times have changed, men and women are equal now". Thus spoke Chairman Mao Zedong shortly after the 1949 Revolution, at a time when one measure after another was being taken to emancipate women from their traditional roles as homemakers.
While inequalities in marital relations persisted, and certain obstinate customs such as foot binding could not be outlawed immediately, in the work place the changes were truly radical. "Suddenly women became a labour force that could do anything and be anywhere," wrote Wang Semei in Women of China.
Women, she pointed out, were encouraged to venture into fields that had traditionally been dominated by men, including areas requiring intense physical labour. In the move to industrialise China, thousands of women's work teams were formed, and deployed in oil production, drilling, lumber cutting -- nowhere seemed to be off bounds any more. There were even all-women diving teams. In 1975, in Hubei province alone, it was estimated that there were 3,700 women's labour teams working as, among other things, demolition workers, stone masons and blacksmiths. Back in the countryside, the work of the "iron girls" on the land was also highly valued. They were the women who "dared to demand that the earth changes its looks".
Yet of course, the picture was not all rosy. Protective regulation for hazardous jobs was sometimes lacking, and there were some tasks that really were too physically arduous, causing women injury and ill health.
Not only were women called on to work alongside men, but they were vigorously encouraged to pursue their full potential. Indeed, their abilities were most clearly recognised at those times when socialist fervour was at its peak -- in particular, during the years between 1966 and 1976, when the Great Leap Forward was followed closely by the Cultural Revolution. Many Chinese women and men old enough to have lived through those days now prefer to put their grinding austerity behind them. But despite great hardships, it was also a period when work was considered to be an indivisible right, for women and men alike.
In other words, it was a very different time from today. Increasingly, women find their right to work seriously compromised. The opening up of the economy, and specifically the reform of the state enterprise system, has hit them hard. As in many other countries undergoing economic restructuring, when state enterprises set about downsizing their labour force, women are often the first to be shown the door.
According to official statistics, in the period up till September 1998, 2.98 million female workers were laid off. National People's Congress delegate Nie Li estimates that women account for about 65 per cent of all those laid off in China. An estimated 800,000 female workers are dismissed from their jobs every year. There are currently 5.3 million women registered as unemployed -- and many more unregistered.
From top:The neon-lit nightclubs and restaurants of downtown; fastfood is all the rage; haute couture Chinese style; the modern China of skyscrapers and traffic jams; women's role in the classroom; high tech opportunities in the service sector
Last March, the Women's Hotline in Shanghai had to be closed down, because it could not cope with the tens of thousands of women who were ringing in, pleading to be given jobs after having lost their previous employment, or expressing anxiety over their future work prospects. The Shanghai Women's Educational and Training Centre which ran the hotline has also been working round the clock to offer retraining that might offer some hope of re-employment elsewhere, as well as helping people start up their own income-generating projects. But the centre admits that it can't even begin to meet all the needs of its clients: while they have retrained 3,000 laid off workers in five years, in 1998 alone 163,000 people lost their jobs, and 108,000 the year before that.
The downsizing of state enterprises, according to one high level official who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity, has predominantly targeted the large- and medium-sized textile industries of north-east China, which have traditionally been run by women labourers. The official said that retraining centres were set up by all the state enterprises that were being reformed, to help women find another source of income. Incentives were also introduced in certain states to encourage employers to take on women, as for example in Hubei, where for every laid-off woman recruited by the factory, the government gives the employer 1000 RMB. Tax breaks and special concessions are also available for women who want to set up their own micro-enterprise, a trend that has been fervently encouraged at all levels.
As jobs disappear in the manufacturing industries, the government is steadily encouraging laid off female workers to enter the services sector -- a policy that has not been received with unalloyed joy by those affected by it. As the official explained, "Many women who have been proud industrial workers for many years are reluctant to go into the service sector, where the work is less appealing and certainly less likely to be done with pride. In their mid-forties, with few skills, and little education, they are finding it difficult to adapt to a new situation and new expectations."
While the state is making great efforts to present the service sector as both attractive and lucrative, one can only wonder how on earth, after working in an often highly sophisticated and specialised manufacturing industry, anyone could afterwards take pride in standing behind a counter and asking, "Would you like fries with that?".
"All workers are made to feel proud to be contributing to the development of their country, irrespective of the nature of their work," explained the official, somewhat implausibly. "Their guiding motto is: I serve everyone and everyone serves me." People may have felt that way immediately following the Communist Revolution, when class differences were visibly in the process of being levelled. However, this sense of solidarity is today fading fast in the face of the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, as those at the bottom of the pay scale are left out, while those nearer the top continue to progress by leaps and bounds up the social ladder.
Indeed, there are even those in China, as in other countries, who think that in the light of the present unemployment problem, women should be encouraged to go back to keeping home, so as to reduce the competition for salaried work, and allow their men to provide for them. This conservative position has not been supported by the Communist Party, and has been vigorously attacked by the national organisations that represent the interests of women. "Women's economic independence is very important, and it has always been emphasised," says the official. And although the more militant line has not been adopted by either the state or the party, such views are increasingly prominent. "The truth is simply that one partner's income is not enough for the family, so women are forced to work," he added.
Despite all that is being done to encourage women to stand by their right to work, many are finally forced to retreat to their homes. The situation is in stark contrast to the period immediately after the revolution, when women who remained housewives were looked down upon. In those days, the rate at which women were replacing men in the work place could reach phenomenal proportions -- up to 80 per cent of the total labour force in some sectors.
THE "PRIVATE" SPHERE: The loss of work has consequences that go far beyond the purely material. Indeed, according to the official, there is a direct correlation between economic status and the incidence of domestic violence. "Many women in the rural areas are still economically dependent on their husbands, and so they are obliged to put up with it [violence] and obey them, because they have no other way of surviving", he explained.
The number of women reporting assault from their spouses has increased in the last years, possibly because, as in many countries, it is no longer considered a taboo that cannot be spoken about to outsiders. Moreover, organisations such as the All China Women's Federation have done a great deal to encourage women to speak out. But according to the official, there is another reason which has contributed substantially to both the increase in domestic violence, and the surge in the divorce rate over the last 10 years: "Many husbands, having lost their jobs, feel incapacitated, or impotent. They feel unable to provide for their families. This feeling of failure sometimes translates into physical violence."
This may be understandable, but it is not excusable. In some states, there is already legislation outlawing domestic violence. "In Hunan province," said the official, "the local government has issued regulations prohibiting domestic violence. In some states, domestic violence lies behind half of all cases of divorce."
The All China Women's Federation has set up both a hotline and a legal consultation service to help women who want to get out of abusive relationships. Shelters for battered wives were established as pilot projects in Wuhan and Shanghai, but had to be closed down when they were unable to cope with the huge numbers of women flocking to their doors.
The opening up of the economy may have left many men frustrated and anxious as to how they are to continue to support their families, but it has also created opportunities for others to get rich overnight -- especially the budding entrepreneurs who trade between the different towns and cities of this vast country. One result of this, as the official pointed out, has been the emergence of a new phenomenon, known as the Third Party: "There are people who took advantage of the opening up of the economy to start up their own business or trade. After living for a long time on a shoestring budget, they now find they are very rich. Sometimes, they take mistresses, especially if they come to the city to trade for a while. When their wives find out, they may file for a divorce."
Women can easily get a divorce in China, under the Marriage Law, arguably one of the most progressive laws regulating marital affairs in the developing world. Although the law is currently undergoing revision, which many hope will see the introduction of clauses against domestic violence, even as it now stands, it is relatively liberal. For example, women have the right to divorce their husbands at any time, while men are not allowed to apply for a divorce while their wives are pregnant or during the first year following the birth of a child.
THE FEMALE MASSES: Many analysts believe that much of the suffering experienced by Chinese women could be alleviated, if only the government would allow NGOs -- or "mass organisations", as they are termed in China -- to operate without restriction. Although the All China Women's Federation is perhaps the most powerful association pushing for women's rights on the mainland, the influence of many Chinese women's NGOs is far from negligible. While China is seeking to establish contacts with foreign NGOs working on women's issues, the relationship has in the past not always been a smooth one, not least because many Western feminists have strongly criticised China's one child policy. The official, however, felt that these criticisms were largely unjustified, since the one child policy applies only to urban areas. In the countryside, couples are allowed to have two children -- and among minorities, the limit is three.
"A woman's reproductive rights should be weighed against the socio-economic rights of society as a whole," he explained. "Individual rights should not be put before collective rights. China's population increases annually by 30 million net, and so it is likely that we will stick to the one child policy for the next 30 years at least."
Critics, however, especially in the West, have claimed that the Chinese government is willing to do just about anything to enforce that policy -- forcing, coercing or intimidating women into having abortions and sterilisations. The official did not deny that there were violations. The government, he said, now recognises that there is "a problem", and has issued a statement calling for a halt to the use of coercion or force in promoting sterilisation or abortion. "It was never the official policy to use abortion as a family planning method," he added. "The problem came from the grassroots, where uneducated and untrained staff took it upon themselves to pursue such policies. Their actions in no way reflect the official stance."
WOMEN IN THE PARTY: A major challenge facing women in China is to increase their representation in the Communist Party, which would greatly boost their position in society. Currently, only 20 per cent of women are party members. The low percentage can be attributed to many factors, including women's limited participation in politics and their poorer educational opportunities. Party membership would enhance their employment prospects, as well as the chances of their holding leadership positions at both regional and national levels. The first step on this road, however, as the official pointed out, must be to reduce illiteracy, especially among women in the countryside.
The road ahead for women in China promises to be full of challenges, as they strive to preserve the gains they made in the earlier years of the revolution -- and to win new battles over crucial issues of personal freedom and choice.
