Women in China

Women in China make up approximately 49% of the population. In modern China, the lives of women have changed significantly due to the late Qing dynasty reforms, the changes of the Republican period, the Chinese Civil War, and the rise of the People's Republic of China. Like women in many other cultures, women in China have been historically oppressed. For thousands of years, women in China lived under the patriarchal social order characterized by the Confucian teaching of "filial piety".

Achievement of women's liberation has been an agenda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. Following the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong replaced the common use of the term "女人" [nüren] with "妇女" [funü] as he famously said "妇女能顶半边天" (Women hold up half the sky). "妇女" [funü] is a term for labouring women, which signifies the revolutionary role that women play in the liberation of China. The first celebration of "妇女节" (International Women's Day) in 1950 consolidated the representational strategies associated with the labouring women concept.

During the Mao era, many policies were carried out to promote gender equality. The New Marriage Law passed on May 1, 1950, outlawed forced marriage and concubinage. The last few regional practices of foot-binding died out, with the last case of foot-binding reported in 1957. The Great Leap Forward, while focusing on improving total productivity, created work opportunities for women. However, they still remained as peripheral roles and rarely climbed up to positions of decision-making. The representation of women as "iron women" who worked restlessly in workplaces dismissed the unalleviated domestic burden that women were still forced to take and homogenized the individuality of women.

In contemporary China, although women's rights in China have improved tremendously, women still suffer a lower status compared with men. Under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, the gains of women have dropped compared to previous leaders. After witnessing the growing feminist movements in China, the general secretaryship of Xi shut down many activist NGOs, detained feminists, and censored feminist platforms. Feminism has been viewed by pro-government nationalists as a toxic Western ideology. Xi Jinping has promoted pro-natalist policies and encouraged women to "actively foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture." Abortion in China has been increasingly restricted in the 2020s.