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Cited by 20Gender Politics and RepresentationChina's Socioeconomic Reforms and GovernanceHistorical Gender and Feminism Studies

“Being a Good Daughter of the Party”?: A Neo-Institutional Analysis of the All-China Women’s Federation Organisational Reforms in China’s Xi Era

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Zhou, Yunyun·2019·China Perspectives
DOI 10.4000/chinaperspectives.9042
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Abstract

Like other socialist institutions surviving in China’s market reforms, the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF or WF when referring to its local branches), as the only state-sponsored organisation representing women’s interests, has been constantly refashioning itself to meet new existential challenges. In July 2015, the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party commanded a new wave of mass organisational reforms, in which the Women’s Federation’s alienation from the grassroots and a weakening representation of women’s interests were questioned. After three years of intensive reform, are the local structures of the ACWF being substantially improved to reconnect to its mass base? Drawing from extensive fieldwork in three provinces and a neo-institutional analysis, this article argues that in the short term, although the reform serves principally as a consolidation of Party authority, local Women’s Federations are creatively using the reform to expand their popular base and broaden their representativeness. In the long term, however, local WFs are facing unreformed institutional problems such as political marginalisation, bureaucratisation, and ineffective implementation, which stagnate further development of China’s state feminism.

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  • Such strategic motivations lead to a Party-centered approach to defining women's interests, which requires women's interests to be visibly addressed by laws and regulations, as long as they serve the CCP's consolidation of power and societal stabilization.

    “Such strategic motivations lead to a Party-centered approach to defining women ' s interests, which requires women ' s interests to be visibly addressed by laws and regulations, as long as they serve the CCP ' s consolidation of power and societal stabilization (Zhou 2019).”

    From Coalition-Based Gender Lobbying: Revisiting Women's Substantive Representation in China's Authoritarian Governance (2022) · cites this paper as Zhou 2019

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

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  • The ACWF's agenda has always shifted along with the CCP's priorities.

    “However, as the ' good daughter of the Party, ' the ACWF ' s agenda has always shifted along with the CCP ' s priorities (Zhou 2019).”

    From Coalition-Based Gender Lobbying: Revisiting Women's Substantive Representation in China's Authoritarian Governance (2022) · cites this paper as Zhou 2019

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  7. LI, Xiaojiang 李小江. 2000. "50年,我们走到了哪里? 中国妇女解放与发展 历程回顾" (50 nian, women zou dao le nali? Zhongguo funü jiefang yu fazhan licheng huigu, Fifty years, where are we now? The review of Chinese women's liberation and development). 浙江学刊 (Zhejiang Xuekan, Zhe- jiang Academic Journal) 1: 59-65.
  8. LIU, Bohong 刘伯红 (ed.). 2009. 妇联干部教育培训参考教材: 社会性别主 流化读本 (Fulian ganbu jiaoyu peixun cankao jiaocai: shehui xingbie zhuli- uhua duben, The ACWF cadres' education and training textbook: The read- ers of gender mainstreaming). Beijing: China Women Publishing House.
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  12. XIAO, Yang 肖扬 . 2004. "对妇联组织改革动因及其途径的探讨" (Dui fulian zuzhi gaige dongyin jiqi tujing de tantao, Exploring the agents of, and chan- nels to, the transformation of Women's Federation organisations). Collec- tion of Women's Studies 60(4): 39-45.
  13. ZENG, Jinyan 曾金燕. 2016. 中國女權 -公民知識分子的誕生 (Zhongguo nüquan -gonggong zhishifenzi de dansheng, Feminism and genesis of the citizen intelligentsia in China). Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.
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Authors
Zhou, Y.
Affiliations
University of Oxford (GB)
Corresponding author
Zhou, Yunyun
ORCID
Zhou, Yunyun
Venue
China Perspectives
Publisher
OpenEdition
Published
2019
Volume
2019
Issue
2
Pages
17-28
ISSN
  • 1996-4617 (ISSN-L)
  • 2070-3449
DOI
10.4000/chinaperspectives.9042
OpenAlex
W2954683828
Cited by
19
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 2
FWCI
3.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • China Perspectives (publishedVersion)
  • OpenEdition (OpenEdition) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-15-FRAL-0010)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Politics and Representation
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Historical Gender and Feminism Studies
Keywords
All-China Women's Federation, Chinese Communist Party, state feminism, women's organizations, organizational reform, grassroots mobilization, representation of women, bureaucratization, political exclusion, neo-institutional analysis, China

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