Li Yinhe talks about sex

Chapter 49 Where Will Gender Equality Go?

The improvement of the status of women around the world will lead to more harmonious relations between the sexes and less conflict, and will make the world a better place.

The Chinese have gone through a tortuous path in striving for equality between men and women.For thousands of years, there is nothing terribly wrong in saying that China was basically a patriarchal society.It is a basic fact that men are primary and women are secondary.Of course, compared with the situation in the West, we still have some cultural characteristics. For example, the status of mothers in Chinese families is often higher than that in Western families, but this does not change the basic fact that women are in an inferior position.

The victory of the Communist revolution has greatly improved the social status of women. There are many reasons for this, the most important of which is of course that most women participate in social labor.Gender was an overlooked factor in the decades before the reforms.The tone of the emphasis on equality between men and women is "times have changed, men and women are the same".As a result, the new generation of women who grew up in this social environment have a tendency to ignore or even cover up their "femininity".After the reform, China's attitude towards gender issues has changed. Many women and men have rediscovered the so-called "femininity", and many people yearn for it, immersed in the joy of regaining the right to "be a woman". The rapid development of the fashion industry and the fashion industry is evidence of this change, the extreme form of which is the emergence of the "full-time wife" group.

Western feminists have different views on the status of women after China's reform. For example, Evans pointed out: Since 1978, China has re-emphasized the family as the center of gravity of economy, society and morality, and re-emphasized monogamy. relationships, adding honor to women's domestic roles.So, at a time when women deserve more freedom, when they should be involved in more activities outside the home, they are told that the family is where their basic social responsibility lies.

I think this impression mainly comes from the household contract production responsibility system in rural areas.This problem should be viewed from two aspects: urban and rural areas: in urban areas, there is no problem of women returning to their families. Although some people have proposed this proposal, it has been strongly opposed by women, and there is currently no possibility of implementing it—although women Employment encountered various difficulties. In the 1979 years from 1988 to 10, urban women's employment growth rate was always higher than that of men's, with an average annual growth rate of 49%, which was 127 percentage points higher than the national average annual growth rate of the workforce.In cities, from 1982 to 1990, in finance, culture and education, broadcasting and television, health care, sports, social welfare, commercial and beverage supply and storage, government organizations and other industries, the growth rate of female employees exceeded that of male employees by 21-78 percentage points respectively.

In rural areas, it is true that the family replaces the production team and becomes the production unit again, but it is not immediately clear what impact this has on women.First of all, even in collective production, the basic unit of farmers’ life is always the family, which has not changed before and after the reform; A variety of productive labor, such as the vast majority of laborers in the breeding industry are women, many professional farming households are dominated by women, and the income earned by many women for the family even exceeds that of men engaged in agricultural labor; again, many Local men go out to work, and women become the main labor force of agricultural labor; finally, many women flow to coastal areas and cities, and invest in emerging township enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises that recruit female workers. Among the migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta, women workers account for about [-]%.

These situations are ignored by overseas researchers.It can be predicted that in the 21st century, Chinese women will more actively participate in production activities outside the family, and women's status in the family will also improve accordingly.In the 21st century, the development trend of the world's family will be further diversification, which is manifested in the further nuclear family structure of the family; the further miniaturization of the family size; the increase of single persons; Families increased; the proportion of men sharing housework increased, and so on.It is speculated that in the next century, the burden of women's housework will be reduced. There are three main reasons. The development of the food delivery industry, the development of the laundry industry, etc.; second, the further popularization of small household appliances will reduce the intensity of housework and shorten the working hours; third, the proportion of men's share of housework will increase, thereby reducing the burden of women's housework.

In short, no matter from the perspective of the world or China, the status of women in the family will be improved in the 21st century.The sphere of women's life has expanded progressively from a family-centered to an equal emphasis on the private and public spheres.The improvement of the status of women around the world will lead to more harmonious relations between the sexes and less conflict, and will make the world a better place.

(End of this chapter)