Laraib Nisar
China is famous in the world for its remarkable transformative story in the history of the world’s economic affairs. The economic progress and development China witnessed in the late 20th and early 21st century is considered a miracle in itself. The rapid economic growth exhibited by China wasn’t only due to its political and structural strength but the social and cultural components also played a significant role.
One of the most striking feature of the Chinese economic development program was its inclusivity for women. It seems like China realized the need for gender equality far before the rest of the world, and is now reaping its fruit in the form of its matchless economic, social and cultural development.
The first step China took was to encourage its women to act as the economic motor of the country. This was done by bringing wholesome structural, legislative and normative changes in the system.
Firstly, the Chinese transformed the family and marriage system. There are no two opinions on the fact that home is where women can become empowered first to be able to move out in the public space and achieve growth and success. China, introduced introduced policies like the new marriage law- which forbade arranged and forced marriages – and shifted the focus away from the dominance of men and onto the interests of children and women. China also banned the traditions of polygamy, gave individuals the right to divorce, made compulsory the act of family planning, and forbade mercenary marriages in which a bride price or dowry is paid.
The second important step taken by the Chinese was the implementation of one child policy, which allowed each married couple to bear only one child except in the case of special circumstances. The policy didn’t only help China in taming the ticking bomb of population surge, but also helped in ensuring and securing the health and productivity of the Chinese women. Moreover, having less children allowed Chinese women to focus on world outside their home due to fewer home responsibilities.
Though this policy increased the probability of giving birth to male children only, still the fewer female children born, grew up far more competent than their male counter parts. According to a survey conducted by Tsinghua University, some 70% of the local employees of international corporations in Shanghai’s Pudong or Beijing’s Central Business District are young Chinese women. The government also made large-scale efforts for the typically low-skilled rural women. Capacity building, a.k.a skill-set development, involved teaching and training the women in order to add new skills to their existing repertoire. Capacity building emboldened women with the skills essential to financially sustain themselves, their families and their communities.
Another realization made by the Chinese government was that in order to move out of poverty, poor people need to invest their own time and money. This was done by encouraging the rural Chinese women to create an economy for the items and services that they need. For example, if the community requires health services, the woman should petition in their village for low-cost medical services, especially for the uninsured. In this way, the rural Chinese women banded together as one entity, simultaneously ignoring the communist/capitalist-sentiments of the Chinese government and created a local economy that met their needs.
As a result of the above mentioned policies and steps, the Chinese Economy witnessed mushrooming growth. Women now contribute approximately 41% to China’s GDP, a higher percentage than in most other regions, including North America. On the production side, they represent the best of China’s brain power and are propelling their country to new growth. On the consumption side, they buy millions of articles on Taobao and turned Alibaba’s Singles’ Day into the world’s most valuable day for retailers.
The Chinese model has a lot of lessons for developing countries like Pakistan, where women still lag behind in all fields of life despite constituting around 51 percent of the total population. It is high time we realize the true potential of our women, and acknowledge the role they can play in transforming the fate of the nation. Unless we bring changes in the cultural fabric and the mentality of the masses, we won’t be able to transform the society. Pakistan can flourish only if we discard the outdated concepts of the dark ages like patriarchy, gender-based occupational segregation and discrimination, gender stereotyping and gender disparity. This can be done by effective decision making by the women, for the real-time empowerment of Pakistani women through skill building and capacity building programs, education drives, promoting and encouraging women entrepreneurship, and most importantly by RESPECTING all women working for the development of their family and hence the nation.
Moreover, giving women roles other than that of a mother, daughter, sister, or wife can help in uncovering their true potential. Wise are the nations who don’t live in the past, and understand the fact that only those (nations) develop which keep up with the pace of modernization.
The author Laraib Nisar is a Defense and Strategic Studies’ graduate, working as a Research Associate at Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) Islamabad.
