97% of CCP provincial leaders are male?

https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/features/pretty-lady-cadres-china - excellent piece by @shenlulushen

I’d add, patriarchal governance is reinforced by authoritarianism.

It silences feminist dissent, questioning & resistance. So many people continue to see men as natural leaders.

India’s leadership is also male-dominated

But for different reasons

Key constraints are traditions of female seclusion, low rates of female employment + proscriptions against women moving widely in their communities.

This curbs their financial, social & political capital.

But Chinese women ARE in the public sphere!

Two thirds of the health workers who tackled COVID in Wuhan were women.

Single women migrate long distances to cities to find work, earn their own money, mix freely, choose their own husbands.

But are not represented in governance.

. @shenlulushen’s great article identifies many important constraints: women’s share of care work, sexist superiors, stereotypes etc.

Authoritarianism is another obstacle.

It stifles feminist critique, blocks sites & accounts.

So few people question this male-dominated system.

Female representation was low in the USSR.

Notwithstanding similarly high rates of female employment, again with weak proscriptions against female mobility,

Only 4 women ever served in the Politburo.

Same impediment: authoritarianism.

Feminist activism isn’t only important for shifting gov policy

By gathering & writing in the public sphere - chatting, bitching, complaining, encouraging & advising each other - women help shift ideas about what’s acceptable & possible.

That’s hampered by authoritarianism.

Whiggish followers may be surprised..

Empiricists may put greater stock in revealed preferences..

But when Shu + Zhu look at gender attitudes between 1995 + 2007, they find no shift in gender beliefs.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0049089X12000798