海角大神

In a country where 鈥渨omen hold up half the sky鈥� in Mao Zedong鈥檚 celebrated phrase, and while one of their number orbits the globe far above the sky, Chinese women鈥檚 earthly rights are in trouble.

Major Liu Yang鈥檚 breakthrough as China鈥檚 first female astronaut and her current exploits in space aboard China鈥檚 experimental spacelab are symbolically important but irrelevant to most Chinese women, say scholars and feminists here. In a country where gender equality is a pillar of official political rhetoric, some key aspects of women鈥檚 status are being eroded.

The saturation press coverage that Liu has attracted since she blasted off last Saturday offers revealing insights into contemporary Chinese values.

Few of the gushing profiles have played up the qualities normally associated with a pilot/astronaut at the cutting edge of space science; instead one article by Xinhua, the state news agency, began simply 鈥淪he is a wife.鈥�

Another, in the state-owned China Daily, stressed how 鈥渕odest and obedient鈥� Liu had been as a girl.

Such traditionally feminine virtues are still highly prized in Chinese women, 60 years after the country鈥檚 Constitution declared that 鈥渨omen enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of life.鈥�

Indeed, official figures suggest that some of the economic, social, and political gains that women made in China during the first decades after the 1949 revolution are being rolled back.

鈥淭here is an imbalance in the way women鈥檚 social status has developed,鈥� worries Jiang Yongping, a researcher at the government-sponsored Chinese Institute for Women鈥檚 Studies. 鈥淲e see a group of educated and very successful women like Liu Yang who achieve great things, but in the less developed areas of China women鈥檚 education and health are still in bad shape.鈥�

Survey says

Nor are social attitudes encouraging for women鈥檚 rights advocates. A nationwide official survey published last year found that the number of men 鈥� and women 鈥� who believe that 鈥渁 woman鈥檚 place is in the home and the public sphere is for men鈥� is on the rise: 62 percent of men believe that, up from 54 percent a decade ago, and 55 percent of women agree, up from 50 percent in 2000.

Another key metric, income, also suggests that women are losing ground to men, even as they grow wealthier overall from China鈥檚 economic boom. Twenty years ago rural women earned 79 percent of men鈥檚 wages; today they earn just 56 percent. In cities the proportion has dropped from 78 percent to 67 percent.

The survey also found signs of progress; the average Chinese woman today has been to school for nearly nine years, three years more than a decade ago and almost as long as the average man. The number of women reporting health checks has increased substantially.

鈥淐learly there has been huge progress in women鈥檚 social status since 1949,鈥� when the revolution swept away feudal traditions such as footbinding, concubinage, and forced marriage, says Ms. Jiang.

China now stands in the middle of world rankings, measuring the gender gap published last year by the World Economic Forum, at 61 out of 135 nations.

Women in contrast

But a cartoon published on the Chinese Internet as Liu took off (and that was quickly censored) drew attention to the starkly contrasting fates that different women in China can meet: It depicted a rocket leaving a dead baby in its wake, and referred to both Liu and to a woman who had been forced by local officials earlier this month to abort her second baby at seven months, in line with China鈥檚 one child policy.

鈥淟iu Yang鈥檚 mission is a sign of how strong the state is, how it can do anything,鈥� says Ai Xiaoming, a feminist scholar in the southern city of Guangzhou. 鈥淏ut at the same time we see the state has not put enough of its power into stopping violence against women.鈥�

鈥淏oth those images illustrate the state of Chinese women,鈥� adds Hong Huang, a well-known magazine publisher and blogger.

鈥淓ach is as representative as the other. There are some pretty powerful women in our society 鈥� and there are some who have fallen into abysmal situations.鈥�

Reverting to old inclinations?

Women in the middle, meanwhile, are often not making the social progress they hoped for. Their salaries lag behind those of their male colleagues, says Jiang, who co-wrote the national survey of women鈥檚 status, partly because 鈥渕ost women are in more junior jobs, and more men become leaders.鈥�

Retrograde attitudes toward women鈥檚 place in society are gaining ground, Jiang believes, because 鈥渋t is more difficult for women to get into politics鈥� from where they might influence opinions.

Women are almost invisible at the top of the Communist Party, which rules China. All nine members of the Standing Committee, the party鈥檚 top body, are men. There is one woman on the 25-member Politburo and just 13 women among the 204 members of the Central Committee.

Some women blame free-market economic reforms for the rollback in women鈥檚 status. When the state and the Communist Party controlled every aspect of Chinese life they could impose equal salaries and an ideology. Now, says Ms. Hong, 鈥減eople have reverted to their natural Confucian inclinations to treat women as objects.鈥�

Certainly women who make their careers more important than their prospects of founding a family are regarded as strange and 鈥渧iewed negatively,鈥� says Jiang. And though sex discrimination is rife in Chinese business 鈥渢here is not enough implementation of anti-discrimination laws,鈥� complains Professor Ai.

For some, like Jiang, the problem is that 鈥淐hinese society is still pretty traditional.鈥� For others, it goes deeper. 鈥淣obody takes the law seriously in China,鈥� says Hong. 鈥淎nd until there is an independent judicial system there will be no way to enforce women鈥檚 rights.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 the system that generates all these problems,鈥� agrees Ai. 鈥淭hey won't be solved until China is a democracy.鈥澛�