ABSTRACT
This paper examines the nature of equality in the Chinese pursuit of socialist feminism, and argues that the Chinese government’s understanding of equality has been dominated by their long-standing claim of equality based on women who “Hold Up Half the Sky.” This claim is often forsaken in practice by the uneasy juxtaposition of official emphases on women’s equal participation and treatment in the workplace and the importance of their domestic role. This chapter proposes an alternative understanding of equality from a feminist political economy perspective and suggests that the preceding claim would be genuine if equality were upheld based on the realization of self-determination through liberation of forces of production, protection of rights, and emancipation upon the official recognition of women’s productive and reproductive roles.
