| Since the founding of the Communist Party of China(CPC),it has been struggling for women’s liberation and gender equality.In recent 100 years,women’s cause in China has been closely connected to the development of both the Party and the whole nation.The Party’s historical experience over the past century,is the evolution of women’s rights legal system started from scratch and grown steadily,from formal equality to substantive equality.By combing and summarizing the changes of legal system for women’s rights protection in the past century under the leadership of the CPC,this thesis explores the evolution as well as the progress of Chinese women’s rights legal system,to provide institutional evolution logic for women’s free and comprehensive development,for better remove institutional barriers to women’s development,and encourage women to exercise their initiative,to promote gender equality and build a fair and equal gender order.The century evolution of the CPC’s legal system on women’s rights protection,it was influenced by both international and domestic political thoughts and feminist thought in various historical periods.At the same time,it was also closely related to the domestic political,economic and social background and women’s subjective cognitive level.In the centennial historical process of the CPC,the intentions,principles and contents of the legal system of women’s rights have been presented different characteristics of the Times in different historical stages,showing the progress of common development between Chinese women’s liberation and the party and the state.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the main part of this thesis draws lessons from the division of historical stages in the history of the CPC,and classify the evolution of women’s rights legal system as four historical periods.In the first chapter,before the birth of the CPC,from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China,all political forces have also tried to break the shackles of traditional etiquette and law under the path of liberalism,trying to change the humiliating fate of Chinese women for thousands of years.At the end of the Qing Dynasty,with the spread of the ideas of"natural human rights" and "gender equality",the movement of "abolishing foot binding" and“revitalizing women’s education" to liberate women’s bodies and transform women’s thoughts developed further.The court of the late Qing Dynasty began to revise the law actively in order to save the precarious ruling position,the legal status of women’s subservience was improved by the draft civil law of the Qing Dynasty,the new criminal law of the Qing Dynasty has deleted the previous criminal articles specially set for women as well,it reduced the provisions on different punishments for men and women committing the same crime.However,a series of draft laws formulated by the late Qing Dynasty were not be promulgated or implemented,and the Qing government’s rule was ended by the Revolution of 1911.After the founding of the Republic of China,the interim government did not grant women equal rights or status in law.During the Beiyang Period,women were excluded from the electoral law and refused to participate in politics;In terms of civil rights,the status of women went back to the state of the Criminal Laws of the Qing Dynasty.Due to the backward and weak political power,it was not possible to create a legal system based on the principle of equality between men and women even after it taking power.Chinese women struggled for rights from"women" to "people" urgently needs new ideas to lead and new political forces to organize.In the second chapter,during the period of the new Democratic Revolution(1921-1949),some attempts of legal system for women’s rights protection has been carried out under the leadership of the CPC,mainly expounds the transformation of women’s liberation path and the attempt of women’s rights legal system led by the CPC in Soviet areas,border areas and liberated areas.In July 1921,after the birth of the CPC,it began to guide the Chinese women’s liberation movement with Marxist women’s theory,combined with the reality of the Chinese women’s movement,it formed the Marxist view on women of the early Communists,it also considered the women’s movement as an important part of the new democratic revolution,to propose the party’s women movement programme in the new democratic period.After taking the road of independent leading revolution and establishing base areas,the CPC began to try and establish some basic principles of women’s rights legal system in the base areas under its control.Firstly,establish a clear class position of Marxism,such as women’s political rights and land ownership under class standards;Secondly,it is closely combined with the reality of the Chinese revolution,such as the change for the marriage freedom principle and the protection for the women’s labor rights under the revolutionary goals;Thirdly,based on gender interests prevail over class and national interests,while try to take more care of women’s vital interests under the premise of serving the interest of the state and the nation.It indicates that the legal system of Chinese women’s rights under the leadership of the CPC,which has set the value objectives of women’s fundamental interests and vital interests since its inception,and also set the tone with Chinese characteristics.In the third chapter,during the period of Socialist Revolution and Construction(1949-1978),the CPC began to create a legal system of women’s rights at the national level,fully empower women in legal form,to fulfill its political promises during the revolutionary period.Based on the socialist system and the planned economy model,relying on the strong guarantee and promotion of state,Chinese women have not only achieved legal equality between men and women,but also achieved social liberation from the private sphere to the public sphere in a very short period of time,which has widely and deeply influenced the traditional gender division labor mode with "men outside and women inside",and constructed the era liberation discourse of "women can hold up half the sky".However,due to the political mobilization,especially in the "great leap forward" and the people’s commune movement,one-sided emphasis on "men and women are the same",ignoring the labor protection of women’s special physiology.At the same time,due to the "flash in the pan" of he socialization facilities for housework,women participate in social production although,they are not liberated from the family with all the housework.In addition,the women’s liberation realized by the promotion of system and administrative forces,lacking of women’s subjective participation and the in-depth review of traditional gender culture,therefore some problems of discrimination and oppression against women were still exist,which triggered a great discussion on “whether women are liberated or not” and became an unfinished women’s liberation.In the fourth chapter,during the period of Reform,Opening up and Socialist Modernization(1978-2012),the CPC established a legal system to protect women’s rights and interests through leading legislation,which based on the constitution,with the protection of women’s rights and interests law as the main body,including more than 100 separate laws and regulations.After the period of Reform and Opening up,due to the withdrawal of the national administrative protection force,various women’s problems such as materialization of women and discrimination against women have sprung up.With the introduction and dissemination of various schools of feminism and feminist law,the academic began to use feminist theory to reflect on women’s liberation in Mao Zedong era and women’s issues under the condition of market economy,it realized the importance of women’s subjective participation,and forming two major themes of "protection" and "development" in the legal system of women’s rights.Since the 1995 World Conference on women,the Chinese government has made a clear commitment to bring a gender perspective into the mainstream of all areas of social development and to promote formal equality to substantive equality,including narrowing the gender gap in political participation,special laws have been formulated to provide comprehensive protection for women’s rights and interests,recognizing and facing up to the objective differences between men and women,and protecting women’s special rights.The state still playing a leading role in this period,the party,government and women’s federation have taken concrete actions,improved the supporting policy to protect women’s rights and promote women’s development.In particular,the three women’s development outlines successively implemented by the State Council since 1995,has set out quantitative targets for protecting women’s rights and promoting women’s development at all stages,and local governments at all levels are clearly required to arrange and implement women’s development and planning with their overall plans for economic and social development,in addition,the necessary funds should be reasonably arrange according to the financial resources,it will also be included in the assessment of local governments at all levels,to effectively promote the substantive implementation of women’s rights stipulated in the law.In the Chapter V: in the period of the New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics(2012-2021),the legal system of women’s rights has been further developed and improved.In the second decade of the 21 st century,the third global feminist movement started in the West.The "He for She" campaign initiated by UN Women,calls on men to become advocates and participants in gender equality and strive to eliminate gender opposition on gender equality issues.The Mi Bunny movement which originated in the United States,has taken the world storm,broadening public understanding of sexual assault,and changing the way men and women behave and interact in the workplace in the United States and beyond.Thanks to the development of mobile internet and social media,foreign feminist thoughts and movements spread at an unprecedented speed and depth,which has a significant impact on China’s social concepts and legal system of women’s rights.During this period,the anti-domestic violence law,the new changes in the civil code of marriage and the new regulations on sexual harassment,etc,those all responded to the topic of rights protection that women in the new era are eager to pay attention to,with a strong gender consciousness and it was a strong impetus to the substantive equality of men and women.However,backward gender concepts and customs still exist widely,in order to break the stereotyped gender culture and change the unequal and unjust gender order,scientific legislation level should be further improved,and the gender equality evaluation mechanism in the process of filing legislation,regulations and policies should be truly implemented to ensure that the law itself is not gender-biased.By grasping the new situation of the contemporary international and domestic women’s movement,The CPC has formed a socialist women’s development path with Chinese characteristics in the new era.By exercising leadership over legislation,the CPC has elevated its political views on the protection and development of women in the new era “into the national will and internalized them into social norms”,leading the evolution of legal system on Chinese women’s rights.Looking back on the century-long evolution of the CPC’s legal system for women’s rights protection,the CPC has always adhered to a distinctly Marxist position,regarded women’s liberation as an important part of democratic revolution and socialist construction,took the protecting of women’s rights and achieving gender equality as the value of the legal system of women’s rights,and constantly transforms its political views on women’s issues into the legal system of women’s rights.The relationship between women’s fundamental and vital interests are antimony and untie,and the combined effects between national administrative power and women’s main body power,as well as the unity of foreign thought for women’s liberation and the reality of Chinese women movement,have become important causal variables promoting the centennial evolution of the legal system for protecting women’s rights. |
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