Persistent Social and Economic Disparities

  • Isabelle Attané
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the INED Population Studies book series (INPS, volume 1)

Abstract

From a demographic point of view, discrimination against girls and women is part of a family and social system that confers high value on men and keeps girls and women in an inferior position. The Chinese government’s actions to improve women’s status over the past 50 years have led to clear improvements. Despite persistent social and cultural issues, there is no doubt that Chinese women enjoy better treatment today than during the imperial period. Peasant women are in a more favourable situation than in most other developing countries, and the position of women in the cities, or at least the larger ones, is probably better than most. In theory Chinese women enjoy all the rights for which hundreds of millions of women around the world are still fighting, including the right to work, study, divorce, or have an abortion. Even if the laws relating to women’s rights and interests are often only partially applied, the country does have a comprehensive body of laws governing various aspects of women’s lives and gender equality, which is the prerequisite for any progress in this domain.

Keywords

Chinese Woman Lower Secondary School Agrarian Reform Village Committee School Enrolment Rate 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Isabelle Attané
    • 1
  1. 1.Institut national d’études démographiquesParis Cedex 20France

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